Magic written with dragon scales
by Wolphie
Summary: Aveyond story. What if the whole painful way to defeating Ahriman was vain? What if there was a unconsciousness moment that determined wrong decisions? You know what do to to find out ; RhenxLars. Rated T for slightly offensive language. R
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Silence filled the calm meadow. The wind was occasionally blowing, making the flowers, grass and tree leaves dance. An apple fell from one of the trees, landing on the soft, green grass. A light-skinned hand reached for the apple and picked it up. The boy that was accompanied by a snow white lamb, gently sat down, taking a bite from the red apple. The white lamb looked at the red-haired boy as he ate the apple. The boy petted the curled hair from the lamb's head, receiving a satisfied 'baa' in return, as the small golden bell around the lamb's neck chinked at the little animal's movement.

"Peter!" A voice chanted from somewhere near. "Where are you, Peter?" The redhead flinched as his brown eyes jumped from the lamb to where the voice came from. "PETER!" The voice yelled again. Peter threw the unfinished apple, picked up the lamb and hid behind the three with it.

A girl appeared from behind a tree, looking around for Peter. Her hair was light purple-blue with matching purple eyes. She rested her hand on the apple tree, her eyes gently moving their sight from an object to another.

The lamb flinched and let out a muffled 'baa' in Peter's arms. The boy placed his hand immediately on the lamb's mouth.

"Keep quiet, Snowflake" Peter whispered but immediately looked up, staring into the girl's purple eyes and grinning sheepishly. "Hi, there, Rhen" The girl didn't respond but just scowled at Peter and turned around, leaving. To Peter's dismay, the lamb followed Rhen, leaving him behind. He crossed his arms and pouted childishly.

"Fine, leave. I don't need you to have fun. I can have it by myself" He said, looking away from them.

Rhen didn't even think of going back. She continued her way determinedly, Snowflake following her. She suddenly stopped, crossing her arms annoyed. Something bumped in the back of her legs, making her turn around. Snowflake shook his head and got on his slim legs, looking up at Rhen. She smiled at the little curly animal and continued her way, calling the lamb to come. She passed the cave that made the entrance to a small village, continuing her way past the sign that read "Clearwater". After several minutes of wondering around the little village, Rhen was suddenly stopped by a young man.

"Rhen! I'm so glad to see you. Didn't you happen to notice... Snowflake!" The young man exclaimed, noticing the lamb appearing from behind Rhen. He picked it up, happily. "You little...where have you been?"

"Peter" Rhen said simply, rolling her eyes.

"Anyway, thank you for bringing him home. Dad would have killed me if he found out that one of his sheep went missing."

"It was nothing. Say hello to Billy from me." Rhen said, leaving. She walked up on the path that leaded to a little house near a bridge. She looked hesitantly at the door that delimited the house's private area. She sighed mentally and entered the house, passing the little welcoming room to the small kitchen.

A red-haired woman was standing beside the table, her arms crossed and her eyes scolding Rhen with their silent death glares. Rhen stood still, with a noticeable tint of sorrow in her expression that somehow begged forgiveness. After several seconds of the mute sight chat, the redhead suddenly spoke.

"Where have you been?" The most awaited bitter question was asked.

"Out" Rhen responded, trying not to sound down. The woman didn't say anything but grabbed a basket from a corner of the kitchen and gave it to Rhen.

"Take this to my sister in Tarsinnya. It's getting dark so stay there for the night. I think you will have fun with your cousin. After all, you both act the same way with your parents" The woman said, leaving the room. Rhen scowled at her mother's last sentence, taking it as an indirect insult, knowing that her cousin was ten years younger than her. She left the house without saying goodbye and slammed the door behind her.

–----

I think I'm going ' multiple parts of me' insane again!!

Good me: * gets out from under the bed * yay, you finally managed to edit the 1st chapter!!

Evil me: * gets out of the closet * what she means to say is that your brain finally climbed back up in your head.

Real me: -_-' I'm are happy to see you guys again, too


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

A little signpost beside a gate read "Tarsinnya". Rhen remained in front of the gate for several moments, before entering the little village. It was already dark and few were the people who were wandering along the dusty streets. Rhen followed a little path to a house that was on the other end of the village. She stopped in front of the door and didn't bother to knock. She opened the door rather sudden, somewhat slamming it open before closing it.

"Hey Aunt Ad-" She immediately had to dodge a plate that has just been thrown at her. She straightened up, looking at the broken plate on the ground and then at the entrance to another room in confusion. A blonde woman that has been apparently cooking before Rhen interrupted her was standing in the entrance to the other room, a terrified look on her face and a rolling pin in her clenched fists. After a closer examination of the situation, which took several moments, the woman let the rolling pin drop on the floor and she sighed in relief, covering her forehead with her right hand.

".. Aunt Adriana...?" Rhen asked in fear and confused...

"I'm sorry dear, I didn't mean to scare you" Adriana said, pouring hot tea in the cup in front of Rhen. "Weird things happened around here lately...and we must be cautious" She said, turning around and placing the pot somewhere in the kitchen.

"It's alright, auntie. It's part my fault that I stormed in like that" Rhen said as Adriana sat down. "What do you mean by "weird things"?" The woman giggled forcedly.

"Oh, nothing, dear. Did I say "weird things"? I didn't mean that." She said, continuing to giggle.

Rhen entered the dark room, holding a candle in her hand. She smiled, remembering the little room from when she was younger. Placing the candle on a table, Rhen looked around the room, looking for changes. She was lost in memories until she heard Adriana's voice coming from the hallway and saying that it's time for bed.

"What are you doing?" The yell made Rhen wake up from her daydreaming. She immediately shook her thoughts off, looking around and remembering her actual state. "Are you still awake, or you've fallen asleep on your feet?" The harsh voice yelled again.

"No, mistress, I'll be done right away" Rhen responded obeyingly, continuing to hang the moist clothes.

She couldn't believe how much things changed in a couple of months. Only the pass from her little forest village to this oriental town dazzled her. But what about the other things that interfered during this 'change'? The fact that she was currently a slave in a city that is well-known for its slavery was so shocking for her that she didn't even insist on thinking about how fast things happened.

Rhen let out a triumphant sigh after finishing with the clothes as she picked up the empty basket and entered the house with it. Inside was a well-dressed lady that was apparently reading a book on a comfortable armchair.

"I finished hanging the clothes, mistress Rona." Rhen said, letting down the basket. The lady looked up from her book, rather annoyed and eyed Rhen.

"Then go to the shop and buy the stuff listed on that paper in the kitchen. There's money there, too" The lady said in the usual harsh tone, going back to her reading.

"Yes, mistress" Rhen said, bowing and going into the kitchen. She left the house, sighing as the hot sun hit her face.

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Evil: what took you so long?? you're slower at the computer than when you're at the bathroom.

Real: -.-'

Good: don't worry, I won't agree with her, even if she's right... ^_^

Real: why me?? TT_TT


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Rhen left the house and adventured out into the crowded city. The city was oriental-looking, with palm trees here and there, houses with funny roofs and..well, crowded by slaves. The bad-dressed children could be seen everywhere around the city doing their chores. The few nobles who were outside were simply having a walk, ignoring their subordinates.

Rhen walked mechanically along the way to the store. She was already used to it. The other slaves in the town were avoiding her, their eyes throwing hating arrows. Living in this town was a nightmare. Rona was treating her horrible, her spoiled son treated her miserable and the other slaves were treating her awful because of Rona's spoiled son who was treating them horrible. The laws of this town were standing on a basis of treatment.

She passed the place she hated the most in this town: the entrance. The guard looked at her as she passed with a smirk. This was like a dream Rhen knew it'll never come true. The guard was always there, but the gates were always open. She sighed and continued her way.

The storekeeper was, as usual, bored and bitter. Rhen was glad she had only a few stuff to buy so that she won't waste some more time close to the woman. She made her way out of the store and followed the path to the centre of the town.

"Terlin? Are you here?" Rhen asked, opening the door of the "Tailor" building.

"Over here" A brown-haired lady said, coming from an opposite room, almost tripping over the soft curtains that delimited the two rooms. For the first time that day, Rhen felt relieved. She felt like Terlin was the only person in the city that didn't hate her and that she could act like herself around her. "Do you need anything?" Terlin asked as Rhen sighed and sat violently on the armchair she used to sit in while she was sewing.

"No, not something that includes clothes. I just came here to catch up my breath a little bit." Terlin looked down, thoughtfully.

"Rona already planned her 'noble reunion'. That means it's already been a year. Man, how time passes" Terlin said, more to herself. Rhen frowned in confusion.

"What are you talking about? What 'noble reunion'?" She asked as Terlin sat on another chair.

"Every year, Rona calls two of her 'noble' friends to pay her a visit and...discuss(if it can not be called complain) about many various things. That's why you have been dragged trough all this hard work this days." Terlin explained as Rhen groaned.

"Anyway, in three days I'll be leaving to Veldarah so if you want to escape Rona and Lars' moods, you can always come with me" Rhen looked down, thinking.

"Tempting, very tempting, but I cannot; I don't want to be chased around because I escaped" Rhen said, standing up and picking up the heavy shop bag.

"Alright. But I'll be here if you need me" Terlin said. "And tell Lars I won't be making any more clothes only because he's bored of the ones he already has" She added, jokingly as Rhen opened the door and left.

"Where have you been, girl?" Rona asked bitterly as Rhen closed the door behind her soundly.

"It was very crowded" Rhen said as she walked into the kitchen and started unpacking the goods. Rona followed her in the kitchen and started looking around with a critical eye.

"I want you to clean the house completely, child, before you go to bed. You will need all the rest you can get for tomorrow" Rona said, putting her hands on her hips.

"Clean the house? I've already done it this morning. And what rest?" Rona smirked with superiority.

"Tomorrow Jenna and Mildred will pay us a visit. I want you to be careful while you serve them. I have a reputation and I don't want you to ruin it. Now get to work, I want this place immaculate!" Rona left the kitchen while Rhen grabbed a broom from a corner.

"Terlin should be a fortune teller, nothing less" Rhen mumbled while starting to broom the kitchen.

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Real: I'll skip my cliché-ish "Finally done!!" and I'll move on to the "Please comment" ^__^

so please do~

Evil: before she drives me nuts

Good: * whistles *

Real: I always seem to find good friends in me... -_-


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

The sound of a smashed object chanted trough the house. Immediately after the sound went Rona's curses followed by footsteps hitting the floor mercilessly. The door to Rhen's room was slammed open, making her pop up.

"Wake up slave girl! There's work to do" She said, leaving the room as Rhen groaned before standing up. She went to the kitchen and spotted the smashed cup on the ground. Sighing, she grabbed the broom and cleaned up. Rona was watching her, analyzing every detail. Rhen put the broom carefully in a little corner.

"Good" Rona said, conclusive. "Now do well and go wake my son" Rona said as Rhen widened both her mouth and eyes.

"What?" She asked, almost frustrated. Rona looked at her, obviously noticing the tone in her voice. "Why don't _you_ wake him up?" Rhen said, annoyed. Rona smiled ironically.

"Look, today is an important day. And I think I've been quite nice to you by not slapping you by now. Now go and do what I asked you to" Rona said, turning her back at Rhen.

Rhen groaned and left the kitchen. She stopped in front of Lars' door and clenched her eyes closed, visualising the curses and insults thrown at her after she "had the nerve to wake him up".She shook the thoughts off and slammed the door open on purpose. Not hearing screamed insults, she concluded that this wasn't enough to wake up Lars. Sighing, she entered the room and toward the bed. Lars was sleeping curled up under his blanket, making Rhen's life more difficult.

"Hey" Rhen said in disgust. "Hey!" She said again poking what she supposed it was his

head trough the blanket. "Come on, wake up an insult me like you always do" she said, shaking him furiously. No answer from him. Rhen groaned and crossed her arms. "Lars!"

"What?" A sleepy voice mumbled from under the blanket.

"There you go. Your mum told me to wake you up" Rhen said

"Yeah, whatever... Why?" Lars asked, still not coming out from under the blanket.

"Tea-party-thing, remember?"

"Oh, yeah...right...I'll come... eventually" Rhen rolled her eyes and turned to leave the room.

"Oh and before you leave, " Lars said before Rhen could close the door.

"What?" Rhen asked, poking her head inside.

"You will pay for waking me up" Lars growled. Rhen just sighed and closed the door behind her. She avoided Rona's sight and went to her little room, slamming the door closed,

collapsing on the small straw bed and pouring her frustration on the poor pillow.

She slapped her forehead and started cursing out loud at the thought that this endless day has just begun.

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Real: ha! What do you have to say now, you evil me?? I turned out to be quite fast actually, I wrote two chapters today XP

evil: *ZZZZzzzZZZZzzzZZZZzzzzzzzzz.... *

good: oh, she looks tired...

Real: how dare she sleep in my moment of glory?? * kicks evil's butt off the desk *

Real: * grin * and don't forget to comment~ ^_^


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Rhen stormed into the kitchen and ran to the calor gas, turning off the fire and taking a large pot of tea off it with a rag, placing it on a tray, beside four cups, and delivering it to the terrace.

"...oh, yes, Rona, I know what you're saying about, I have this problem quite often too" A lady with long green hair agreed as Rhen placed the tray on the round table. She examined the people around the table, finally being able to see the two ladies that were 'Rona's special guests'. The only person that didn't fit in the trio of ladies was a green-haired young man, who was obviously not interested in their little talks.

"Mum, please! I have better things to do" The boy said, rolling his eyes.

"Be quiet, Lars. This party was thrown in your honour, and I think it's obvious for you to be here at your own party." Rona said as Rhen started pouring tea into each member of the table's cups.

"Your son is such a charming young man. He will surely find a wonderful wife" the lady with blonde hair said, looking at Lars. Rhen started laughing under her breath, hoping that no one heard her as Lars groaned at the lady's remark. He then glared at Rhen, who was almost choking and mouthed her a 'you are a dead slave' before she stopped laughing.

"Umm, slave girl?" Lars asked, making her flinch. "What is this?" He asked, holding his cup of tea up.

"Tea?"

"Wrong." He said, making Rhen frown in confusion. "It's the most horrible tea I've ever drank. It's not sweet enough" He said, smugly as Rhen rolled her eyes.

"Why don't you add more sugar?" Lars made a face that expressed nothing else but terrify.

"Are you telling me to mix the pure sugar crystals with the ones that have already melted in a five minutes old tea? Disgusting. Make another" he said, passing the cup to Rhen. She widened her mouth in frustration and amazement of how smug humans can be and left the terrace, defeated, as Lars smirked before standing up from the table, excusing himself.

Rhen closed the door of the kitchen behind her, shoving the cup of tea on the table and sighing frustrated before covering her forehead with her hand. Terlin was leaving in two days and she told Rhen that she could come if she wants to. Lars and Rona were pretty annoying... especially today. She sighed, thinking that she would hate herself for this.

Making up courage, she opened one of the many cabinets in the room and found a big sack of flour. She reached for it but didn't get the chance to grab it out. The door of the room slammed open and Rhen closed the door to the cabinet in the same second.

"Lars!" She exclaimed, somehow relieved that it wasn't Rona.

"What are you doing in that cabinet?" Lars asked, closing the door behind him and crossing his arms.

"I was... searching for the sugar" Rhen lied as Lars raised an eyebrow.

"You mean the sugar on the table over there" Lars asked, pointing to the small bag of sugar. Rhen smiled sheepishly.

"Right" She said grabbing the bag and transferring it to the other table. She looked at Lars who was still staring at her "Why are you still here?"

"Where is my tea?" Lars asked, crossing his arms as Rhen frowned.

"I never intended to make another" Rhen said, scowling at him. "Now the real reason you are here...."

"Is to assure you that when I said that you are a dead slave, I wasn't kidding" Lars said, making a pause. "Tomorrow I'll be leaving for Veldarah. But be sure that we'll meet again in another day." With that, Lars left the kitchen. Rhen remained dumbstruck, looking at the door.

Thinking over the opportunities, Rhen looked at the cabinet in which was the sack of flour. That should stay there for now...

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Real: *dances around * I'm so glad I finished this one too ^__^ Please comment~

Evil: no!

Good: yes!

Evil: no!

Good: yes!

Real: what are you arguing over??

evil: I say that you are annoying and she disagrees, saying that you are super annoying.

Real: -___- whose side are you on??

good: everyone's!!!^__^


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"I can't take it anymore, Terlin! I'm going to explode." Rhen said, sitting on the armchair. Terlin was sitting on an empty chair, sewing. "And the yesterday's party was....ugh!"

"You know, the offer is still available, I'm leaving tomorrow..." Terlin said, not looking up from the material. Rhen looked down thoughtfully.

"Alright, you win." She said, defeated as Terlin looked up from her work and smiled.

"Great. Tomorrow meet me here at 7:00 am. I'll have a nice dress done for you in a couple of hours." Terlin said, standing up and throwing the material on the armchair. "And make sure you don't disappear all of a sudden or Rona will figure out faster" Rhen nodded, standing up, before saying goodbye and leaving the shop.

Rhen stood up from her straw bed and left the room. Checking the large clock in the hallway, she took a deep breath and entered the kitchen. Opening the cabinet, she took out the sack of flour. With another deep breath, she dropped the sack on the ground while squealing. Immediately after, she heard footsteps and doors open and Rona appeared in the kitchen, looking like she just woke up.

"What happened?" She asked annoyed, seeing that nothing was wrong, excepting for the sprawled flour.

"A rat. There must be many more because all the food is gone." Rhen said, trying to sound terrified. Rona widened her eyes in shock and checked all the cabinets, noticing that there was noting in there.

"I'm going to go around the town to see if I can get some help in this situation." Rhen said, rushing out of the kitchen and leaving Rona dumbstruck.

"I feel a bit bad for doing her this" Rhen said, looking down. The shay moved slowly on the non-uniform ground. "Well, why am I bothering? There were actually no rats and the food is somewhere in the house, she will eventually figure it out." She said, looking on the small window. "So where are we headed to?" Rhen asked all of a sudden.

"Veldarah" Terlin said from the other side of the shay, not looking up from her book. Rhen's face expression changed suddenly.

_Flashback_

"_Now the real reason you are here...."_

"_Is to assure you that when I said that you are a dead slave, I wasn't kidding" Lars said, making a pause. "Tomorrow I'll be leaving for Veldarah. But be sure that we'll meet again in another day."_

_End of Flashback_

"Something wrong?" Terlin asked, still not looking up, but obviously noticing Rhen's quietness.

"No...everything is fine." Rhen said, looking on the window again as the shay continued its way.

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Real: go on, comment! ^_^ or else, I'll stay here all night, freezing, waiting for you to comment TT_TT

evil: and I'll be here, torturing her parrot, so you'd better listen to her!

Good: * enters the door* I got pizza! ^____^

real & evil: PIZZA!! * rush out of the room *


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

The shay suddenly stopped, waking Rhen from her daydreaming. She saw Terlin stranding up and leaving the shay. She followed her out and smiled satisfied when seeing the immensity of the city. Terlin made her a sign for her to follow and rushed into the crowd. Rhen rushed immediately after her, afraid not to get lost. But, after a few minutes, her fears changed into reality.

Rhen looked around, worried, in hope she'll spot Terlin. But unfortunately, the crowd was too thick. She started walking, not exactly knowing where or why, while looking around, desperate, for one single familiar face. A green-haired young man made his way trough the crowd, almost bumping into her, but not noticing her. Rhen sighed in relief when Lars didn't turn around in shock because he saw her. Maybe not _that_ familiar.

If Rhen avoided bumping into Lars, she didn't avoid bumping into someone else. Another young man, more exactly. He was about her age, furiously wrapped in clothes. He looked like a southerner if you analysed the clothes and the slightly tanned skin. His face was impossible to see, excepting for his eyes, who were reddish brown.

Rhen covered her mouth with her hand as soon as the boy bounced back, letting all of his packages fall scattered on the ground. None of them reacted for a good ten seconds as Rhen didn't move an inch because of not knowing what to say and the boy remained in place, staring at Rhen, because of an unknown cause.

"Oh my God, I am so sorry! I really didn't mean to" Rhen said, holding her hand for the boy to grab it so she can help him up. "Are you alright?" Rhen asked, seeing that the boy isn't reacting.

"Yeah, I'm fine" The boy said, grabbing her hand and standing up. "You just reminded me of someone" He continued as he and Rhen started picking up the fallen packages.

"Sorry again, I'm just very new in here and I got lost of the person who was guiding me" Rhen said, rubbing the back of her head.

"It's okay." The boy said "Do you need to find a way to the inn?" Rhen looked around and smiled sheepishly.

"I guess so.." She said as the boy seemed to smile.

"It's the big building right next to the General Shop. You can't miss it" He said, pointing a few directions. "And if you don't mind, I have to go now"

"Okay, thank you for the help" Rhen said as they both were about to turn around to leave.

"No problem. And you should check out the Shadwood Academy" The boy said, running into the crowd, leaving Rhen puzzled.

"One cot for tonight, please." Rhen said, handing the innkeeper a few coins. "And I would like to ask you something" She said, receiving a key.

"Yes, please" The man said, politely.

"Can you tell me where the Shadwood Academy is located?"

"Of course, it's right up in the North-Western part of the city, in the back of the Plaza. But it's a school for gifted children who can use magic" The man said before Rhen thanked him and went upstairs, to her room.

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Evil: * takes slice of pizza * * throws it at real *

Real: *dodges pizza * very funny! Now knock it off!

Good: ^__^ I want some rose tea *leaves room *

real & evil: * stare at eachother in disgust* BLEAK!!


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

A massive black ebony door opened, revealing a immense room with a high throne at its end. An apparently human figure was sitting on the throne, waiting for something. It wore a long, hooded cloak, making it impossible to see its face.

An armored man entered the room, walking along it and bowing in front of the figure on the throne. The figure made a gesture that said "finally" and stood up from the throne.

"Have you got news, daeva?" The figure asked, approaching the armored man.

"None good, Sire. It appears that the girl has somehow came in contact with a guardian. I don't know how, though, because the guardian couldn't be found. I have a feeling that the guardian isn't alone." The daeva said. The figure hummed thoughtfully.

"If there are two guardians missing, then their druids are unguarded." The figure said, turning its back to the daeva.

"Do you suggest to send troops to check what guardians are missing, Sire?" The daeva asked as the figure turned around and grunted annoyed.

"Do not be stupid, daeva! We do not know the Temples' location. This would take time, and we do not have time to spend on useless searching." The figure said, approaching one small pond that found its place in the room. "Those little pests! They are more annoying than a pain in the crack. If we could take down one single guardian, each of them will eventually follow him." The figure growled frustrated.

"What are we going to do, Sire? We do not know the guardians' either the druids' current locations" The daeva asked.

"The priestess seems to have entered inside the Earth, she's impossible to find..." The figure sighed. "In situations like this, we have only to wait" The figure said, climbing up on the throne again.

"Wait for what, Sire?"

"For the chosen one to make its entrance" The figure said, grinning, its white teeth being visible. It then, turned its head to the side and eyed the pond from earlier. "Indra!" He called, waiting for a reaction.

The water started to move and rise from the pond in distorted shapes. After several seconds of dancing, the water finally shaped into a clear form. It had a human female form, her incredibly long hair waterfalling down her back and into the water and her entire body having the translucency of water. She took a few steps forward on the water and stepped on the ground, stopped in front of the cloaked figure and made a lady reverence.

"Welcome back, demoness. How is the deep underwater life going on? Have you got news about anything odd?" The figure asked.

"It's good to be back, my lord. No, I haven't got any news, but all the waters across the world are keeping an eye out." The demoness said.

"Perfect. Give me any information you find." The figure said as the demoness nodded and returned to the pond, disappearing beneath the water like she appeared.

Rhen popped up on her bed, breathing heavily as big drops of sweat found their way down her face. She put a hand on her forehead, trying to calm down. She never had a nightmare like that before. Knowing she won't go back to sleep that easily, she stood up and walked over to the window and started meditating over what she just dreamt.

The moonlight was resting on her soft cheeks as a sound of dripping water came from the only sink in her room...

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Real: ooh, the "Magic written w/ dragon scales" and "A guardian is never guarded" crossover portion is approaching... ^__^ I'm so excited.

Evil: yeah, whatever, go on and write

Good: * enters room * does anyone want some rose tea??

Evil & real: -_-'.....


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

The sound of dripping water chanted in the room. Suddenly, a hand reached out, grabbed the handle of the sink and turned it, stopping the water from dripping. Rhen yawned and stretched her arms. She looked trough the window, seeing all the people crowding around the city.

_Flashback_

"_No problem. And you should check out the Shadwood Academy" The boy said, running into the crowd, leaving Rhen puzzled._

_End of Flashback_

Thinking about what that boy said yesterday, Rhen realized she didn't have anything better to do. She took one more look on the window and left the room.

Rhen looked hopelessly around the crowd. It happened again. She got lost again. Clenching her teeth, she started towards a random direction, hoping she'll eventually find the good way. The crowd was thick and it was very hard to make your way trough it in a straight line. The people were pushing, tripping over, falling, bumping into eachother but seconds later they were continuing their ways like nothing happened.

Escaping from the mass of people, Rhen felt like a boulder was taken off her chest. To her relief, she also found out that she finally found the right way to the Shadwood Academy; way that was pointed by a cooperant signpost that was pointing towards the North-West. Another signpost made sure you knew where you were indicating the black carved letters on it: "Shadwood Academy".

Rhen passed the entrance to find herself in a well-kept welcoming garden. The oriental environment from Ghalarah was also noticeable in Veldarah too. The palm trees filled the garden, along with many other oriental plants that were new to Rhen.

Not feeling like admiring the landscape, Rhen passed trough the aromatic garden and entered the building known as the Shadwood Academy. The inside was as eye-catching as the outside. A small pond welcomed Rhen as she entered the building. Smaller palm trees in flower pots were surrounding the pond and found their places in almost every corner. The lobby split in two hallways.

Hearing voices from the one in the left, Rhen took the left one. The hallway leaded to the left to another space which could hardly be called a room as it had only a few plants in the corners. Inside was a blonde man which appeared not to pay attention at the things surrounding him as he didn't seem to notice Rhen passing, or stopping in front of the room.

"That boy is a pain in the ass, Lorad, I'm telling you." A blonde, long-haired woman said to a red-haired man as they came out from a different room. "Ever since he got here, he turned all the sorcerers into little devils." She continued, spotting Rhen. "Hello, there" She said, approaching her.

"Alright, who's screwing with my mind?" The redhead named Lorad said, annoyed, putting his hands on his hips and looking around, frowning.

"What happened?" The woman said, turning to him.

"I feel like when someone's using sword power. But I see no using such things here" Lorad said. "If any of you, students, are hiding and trying to give me a headache so you won't take that test tomorrow, I must say it's not working" Lorad al most yelled as Rhen looked puzzled at him.

"Okay, Lorad, we got it" The woman said, going up to Rhen and taking her hand. "Come with me before he starts blowing things up." She continued, glaring at Lorad, and turning to leave the room, dragging Rhen after her.

"I have a headache when I feel sword power, Ghelda. And this one is pretty powerful and it's not going away." Lorad said with a 'duh!' look on his face, seeing the blonde woman's expression. But Ghelda exited the room and closed the door behind her.

"_Hey! It disappeared! I feel so much better now!"_ Lorad said from the other room, as soon as Ghelda closed the door. She rolled her eyes at his remark.

"_But don't think that the prankers who did this will get away that easy!"_ he continued, making Ghelda frown.

"So, ignoring my colleague's behaviour, why are you here?" She asked Rhen, looking at her. Rhen heard the question but she was too busy examining the room, who seemed to be a classroom, but with no students. She then looked at the tall, blonde lady.

"I don't know, really. I was told to come here. Is it an orphanage or something?" She asked. Ghelda giggled at her question.

"No it's not. It's a special school for gifted children. The person who sent you here didn't send you for nothing. Do you have any magical abilities?"

"Not as far as I know" Rhen said, shrugging her shoulders as Ghelda hummed and looked down, thoughtfully. She then suddenly widened and lifted up her green eyes.

"Wait a second... Lorad's headache...Then it means...." She looked one more time at Rhen "Wait a second on the chair over there. You may really have a gift" Ghelda said, pointing to a chair on the opposite side of the room before leaving it.

Rhen looked confused at the closing door. She spun around and went to the chair and sat on it, waiting. She started hearing voices outside of the door before it opened, Lorad and Ghelda entering the room and Ghelda closing the door.

"You didn't let me take that aspirin" Lorad said, frowning at Ghelda and crossing his arms, childishly.

"Forget about the damn aspirin! Does your head hurt?" Ghelda asked, annoyed.

"It does but not so much. It's like a very deaf pain" He said, concentrating and closing his eyes. Ghelda made a sign for Rhen to approach. Rhen complied and came up to them. "Now it _really_ hurts." He said, noticing that Rhen was now right next to them. "How funny, eh?" He said, chuckling. "When this girl was on the other side of the room, it didn't hurt so much, but as she was approaching, the pain..." Lorad stopped speaking widening his eyes at Rhen.

"I was right." Ghelda said, looking at Rhen "You have the gift of sword power" She said, smiling.

"That's clear as daylight. But how is it possible? I can feel your power without you having to perform any skill." Lorad said in amazement, taking Rhen's hand in his. "It's like you're emanating energy." He added, letting go of Rhen's hand. Rhen listened in shock and happiness everything they have said.

"Is this bad?" Rhen asked, worried.

"No, but I think I know what's going on here...." Lorad said, making a pause. "Has anything odd related to magic ever happened to you?"

"No" Rhen said, her voice shaking a bit.

"How old are you?"

"Sixteen" Rhen said, not sure where this discussion was leading to.

"And it all makes sense now!" Lorad said, happily. "You never used your powers all this years, but the power continued to conserve in you as you grew up. And now it's "overflowing"." Lorad said, smiling.

"But even though this makes sense... Have you ever seen something like this before?" Ghelda asked.

"Never ever in my entire life I've seen a person to have so much power that it had to be emanated so it doesn't affect the user's abilities" Lorad said in a serious tone, making a pause. "I'm so cool! I'm the first one who discovered something like this! Mum is going to be so proud of me" Lorad said, grinning and rubbing his palms. Ghelda sighed and turned to Rhen.

"I'm sorry that my colleague isn't in the mood to answer your questions. I guess you're extremely confused." She said, smiling pitifully at Rhen who looked down.

"Sort of" Rhen said shakily. Ghelda put an encouraging hand on her shoulder, shot a glare at Lorad and left the room.

Rhen watched as Lorad was talking with the blonde-haired man she met earlier. To Rhen, it only seemed like their lips were moving. She was euphoric, worried, shocked and proud all together. All these emotions combined made her lose her concentration ability. It wasn't like she didn't hear or see, or anything else. She just didn't pay attention to these aspects.

The excitement started running trough her veins faster when she received a metal key and a paper, being told that her room is in the bedrooms wing of the building. She walked silently trough the academy's garden, not paying attention to the students. After a few indications received, she finally made it to the sword singers' bedrooms. She found her room, entered and locked it from the inside before throwing herself on the bed, squealing of happiness.

- - - - - – - - - - - - - - - – - - - - - - - – – -

Real: Alright, one more left and I'll be happy.

Good: you know, I always wondered.... hell is hot with fire and such... and the bad guys are always hiding in a cold, dark lair. Then evil is hot or cold??

Evil: if one of these "evil environment" wouldn't have existed, what would you have asked now??

Good: oh, lots of things ^_^... I was thinking the other day....

Evil: * tapes good's mouth with adhesive tape * aaaahhh! How I like the silence ~_~

real: -_-'


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

The Shadwood academy seemed like a nice, cheerful place. Rhen felt like home from her first day there. Even though it was nice, Shadwood academy had, like every school, some rules. Rules that seemed a bit weird to Rhen at first.

She exited her room, now changed in her new red uniform. There were lots of students in the garden, half of them wearing a red uniform, similar to Rhen's and the other half wearing a light brown uniform. Rhen didn't hope to see any familiar faces, but again, unfortuantely, she did.

Rhen widened her eyes, seeing her former master wandering around the schoolyard. He sat at the shade of a tree. He started looking around with a bored face but his expression changed as fast as he saw Rhen standing in the middle of the garden. He stood up immediately and walked over at her.

"What on Earth are you doing here?" Lars asked irritated.

"I could ask you the same thing" Rhen responded bitterly.

"Well, it's obvious that I am gifted with sorcery power and came here to train" Lars said as Rhen rolled her eyes. "But I don't see why a slave girl like you is here. Did mum fire you?" He asked in a mocking tone, grinning.

"Not exactly. I would call it 'quitted'. And I'm not a slave." She said, glaring at Lars.

"Whatever. I'm just glad we haven't got the same gift" He said smugly.

"Yeah, I would have kicked your ass. And I think I'm gonna do that after I graduate" Rhen said, grinning herself. Before Lars could start and throw insults toward her, another girl made her entrance.

"What's wrong, Tenobor? Messing around with newbies again?" The girl said, stopping next to Lars and shooting him a triumphant grin.

Rhen took a look at the weird-looking girl. She didn't wore a uniform as the rest of the students and her clothes looked rather weird. They were very lacey and it somehow reminded Rhen of the clothes noble ladies used to wear back in Sedona. A lacey fan in her hand convinced Rhen even more that she could be from Sedona. She had very dark brown hair, tied up in a high ponytail, two bangs almost covering her orange eyes. The current aggressive look on her face made Rhen have negative thoughts about her, but she suddenly shook them off. Thinking to give her another chance.

"At least I'm working here, not like you, wandering along the garden with a fan in your hand" Lars said, making a pause after which both Lars and the girl opened their mouths to talk.

"Anyway, I've got better things to do" They said simultaneously before realizing their iddentical line. The girl opened her fan and Lars crossed his arms, acting simultaneously for the second time.

"You could get along really well" Rhen commented, amused by their behaviour. They both puffed indignated and turned around leaving in simethry.

Rhen remained in the middle of the garden, not really knowing what to do. A ringing bell made everyone stop their activities and go for class. Rhen took out the paper with her schedule and checked her classes. She ran to the room that was indicated in the schedule, and sighed in relief, seeing that the teacher wasn't there yet.

It looked like a normal school classroom with the students sitting wherever they liked. They were all dressed in the same uniforms, which looked kind of weird to Rhen. But a person that didn't wear a uniform caught Rhen's attention. She noticed it was the girl from earlier. She was sitting on the window still carelessly, looking on the window.

Rhen sat at an unoccupied desk and waited for things to take action. The teacher soon made his entrance, which made all the students go back to the places. Excepting for the odd girl. She was still on the window still, looking trough the window.

"Miss Wolfgang!" The teacher said, annoyed, shoving the book he was holding on his desk.

"What?" The girl asked, turning to the teacher.

"I understand you're not here to study because of your well-mastered powers, but would you please stop climbing up on the window still?" The teacher said, raising his voice at the last part. The girl jumped off the window still and sighed. "Thank you" The teacher said "Now would you please go to a seat like the other students in this room? Thank you" The teacher said, sitting at his desk himself. The girl sat at the empty desk next to Rhen and took a look at her, seeming to notice her for the first time.

"Hey, aren't you the girl from earlier?" She whispered, receiving a nod from Rhen. She smiled and told her to meet her by the pond after this period, winking. Rhen turned her attention back to the teacher again.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Real: My... hands... are... freezing! Gaah~ But at least I done writing these ten chapter I promised.

Evil: do you want me to fix your hands?? *Evil smile *  
Real: no thanks..... -_-'

Good: mmmhhhmmmhh!!!!

Evil: don't worry, that adhesive tape doesn't wear off that easily * grin *


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Rhen walked out of the classroom, looking around for the girl from earlier. She continued her way out of the building, confused at how fast she lost the track of the girl. Looking around the garden, and noticed the girl, standing in the place she promised. Looking at her clothing and way of acting, she wasn't _that_ hard to pass unnoticed.

"Hey" She said in a perky tone as she spotted Rhen. "Are you new here?" She asked, friendly.

"Yeah, I got here yesterday. What about you?" Rhen asked.

"Oh, I'm not here to study. I'm here to... _take notes_" The girl said, smiling. Even though she didn't seem to mean it, her last answer seemed a bit annoying to Rhen. "My name's Marine, by the way. Marine Wolfgang" She said, holding out her hand.

"Rhen Darzon" Rhen replied, shaking her hand. "Nice to meet you" She continued, making a pause. "Are you from the Western Empire, Sedona?" Rhen asked, looking once again at her clothes. Marine widened her eyes in excitement.

"Yes, actually yes, I am. What, it was the clothes or the smug attitude which betrayed me?" Marine asked jokingly, giggling.

"I think both" Rhen said, giggling herself.

A bell rang, interrupting their little happy moment. Marine rolled her eyes before they both said goodbye and split up, each taking a different path.

"Here" Marine said, opening a door. Rhen remained in awe, looking at the immense room and comparing it to her compressed little matchbox. Not mentioning that the bad was huge, the room was well proportioned with it. "They said it'll be a larger room, but I think they exaggerated."

"Uh-huh..." Rhen said as Marine closed the door.

"So, what are you going to do after you graduate?" Marine asked, sitting on the bed. Rhen came back to her senses.

"I have no idea" She said, frowning and sitting on the bed. Marine seemed to be thinking.

"So you already met...." She stopped abruptly.

"Met who?" Rhen asked, seeing that Marine isn't continuing.

"No one. I was thinking of something else" Marine said, standing up from the bed and going to the balcony. Rhen watched puzzled as she exited the room and sat on a chair in the balcony. Looking at her current state, Rhen couldn't find the match between Marine and the smug girl earlier. After several seconds, she finally asked her if she was okay. "Yeah, I'm fine... I just feel guilty for a reason..." She said, coming back in the room and taking her place on her bed. "Can you tell me more about yourself?" Marine said, her mood suddenly changing back to how it was before. Rhen looked at her confused but nodded.

Rhen started telling Marine everything that happened to her until present. Marine's mood suffered many changes as Rhen went on with the events that changed her life. Marine's ability to comment on everything, even on bad moments filled their day with laughters.

"...and in the night I slept at the inn, I had the weirdest and most terrifying nightmare." Rhen said, remembering the horrible nightmare. "It was this weird, dark place. Some sort of palace. And it was this figure sitting on a throne, talking to a guy who he was calling "a daeva" and who wore a blue armor." Marine listened carefully to what Rhen had to say, her mouth starting to open in shock. "And then, the figure called out a name... It was starting with I...In-something...Indra!" Rhen said, remembering the name as Marine's eyes started widening. "After he said that name, the water in the pond rose and took a human form. That figure called it demoness a few times" Rhen stopped from telling the story, waiting for Marine to comment on something and make her laugh. But she didn't. Her face remained in a shocked expression.

"Tell me, Rhen" She suddenly said, after several seconds of slience "Did the demoness called Indra say something?" Marine said, not changing her face expression. Rhen thought for a second.

"I remember her saying something... That all the waters around the world are keeping out an eye." Rhen said as Marine smirked. "Why?"

"Just asking." She said, still smirking and laying back on the bed. "Oh, no, the waters are spying on us!" She said, jumping up and grimacing dramatically as Rhen started laughing. Marine looked out through the balcony, her smiling face changing to a serious one.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Real: crossover!! yaay, finally~

good: yaay!

Evil: hey...when did you take that adhesive tape off

good: * puppy face *

Evil:* scowl * *wraps good in adhesive tape * ^__^


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

A rusty door opened as a dark silhouette stood in front of a black dark room. The silhouette lighted a candle, making its face visible. Rhen entered the room, mumbling curses and looking around the dark room. A sudden slam sound coming from behind her made her turn around shivery, noticing that the door was closed. A lock sound came from the door as Rhen groaned. The candle she was holding suddenly went out, leaving Rhen in total darkness.

Lars popped his head out at seeing light coming from the door, but immediately hid himself back behind the barrels as he heard the approaching footsteps. What if the headmaster found out about what he did and came searching for him? He gulped at thinking how long his detention would be.

The lights suddenly went off and Lars heard a female voice screaming. Surprised by the sudden reaction from the person that just entered the room, Lars stood up and accidentally stumbled over a couple of barrels.

"Who's there?" Rhen asked, trying to sound determined and make up from the scream earlier.

"Me" Lars said purposely, trying to make the other person confused.

"'Me', who?" Rhen asked, annoyed "Oh forget it, it's like a stupid knock knock joke. Who are you?" Rhen asked.

"You go first, I don't trust you" Lars said, unconvinced as Rhen rolled her eyes.

"Fine, let's leave it that way. We're stuck here for a while." She added, sighing.

Sitting on the hard concrete floor with her back leaned on a old barrel and an unknown male student from the academy sitting next to her. Rhen couldn't feel weirder. They have been sitting there for a while, waiting for someone to open the door from them. The silence was applying pressure on her and the air started being cold. Rhen sighed without a particular reason, closing her eyes.

"So why are you here?" Lars asked, trying to un-tension the atmosphere.

"I thought I heard something and I came to see what happened" Rhen said, making a pause "Guess I found out" She said smiling.

Lars could hear in the girl's voice that she was smiling. It was something in that smiling voice that it was so contagious that Lars couldn't hold back but chuckle himself. Trying to associate the girl's voice to everybody he knew, he found out that he couldn't. The girl's voice was like covered in honey, making you smile at the sweet words that came out her mouth.

"What about you?" Rhen asked, opening her eyes and looking towards the direction the guy's voice came from.

Lars hesitated to answer. To tell the girl that he got in trouble and ran away would surely change the way she sees him, literally speaking. He would look like a clumsy coward. The girl waited for him to answer patiently.

"Well, I had to run away from class because I accidentally got the wrong spell and almost blew up everyone. Now I can just hope for the headmaster not to find me" Lars said with a chuckle. The girl giggled, that heavenly sweet voice coming out of her throat again.

"You can't stay here forever, can you?" Rhen said, giggling at the boy's story.

"Not forever. As long as you're here, too" Lars said, smiling, but having no idea how that thought slipped out his throat.

Rhen slightly blushed at the boy's reply, thanking God that there were no lights in the room. The boy's voice reminded her terribly of Lars' voice but she immediately shook the thought off, comparing Lars' attitude with the boy's. It couldn't be Lars. Rhen looked towards the boy and giggled.

"You're so cute" she said, trying not to act like she lost control over her emotions. She never thought she could fall in love with someone she couldn't see, by just talking to him. This situation proved to her that everything was possible.

Lars blushed madly at the girl's reaction. He was dying to know the identity of the sweet girl next to him. Hardly admitting to himself that he just fell in love with someone after a plain conversation, he tried once again to compare the girl's voice and attitude to ones he already knew. But, once again, he couldn't find any matches.

A sound caught their both attention as Lars realized what was that sound coming from and picked up the matchbox that just fell from his pocket. He was finally going to find out who the girl really was.

"I forgot completely about this..." he mumbled to himself. "Did you have a candle with you when you came here?" he asked, turning his head towards the girl. The girl took out the candle form somewhere and held it out for Lars to grab it. He reached for the candle but his movements froze as soon as his hand came in contact with the girl's soft skin.

After several seconds of not moving, Rhen retreated her hand abruptly, blushing furiously. She heard the boy try to light the matchsticks, failing lamentably the first seven times.

Lars' hands were shivering furiously. The stupid matchsticks weren't obeying his commands by going off immediately after they were lighted, making it impossible to see the girl's face in the fraction of a second. After seven matchsticks wasted, he finally lighted the candle and looked to his right, curious.

The sound of the matchstick remaining lighted and the candle lighting the room made Rhen look to her left to see the boy's face.

As soon as they looked at eachother, they both remained paralyzed. They remained in shock, looking at eachother and not being able to react in any way. Rhen's purple eyes had their gaze stuck in Lars' green spheres as he dropped the candle on the ground. The light went out as the candle hit the ground, leaving them in darkness.

The door unlocked, slammed open and left a shade of light outlining the rectangular shape, making them both come back to reality and look towards the open door as the light from the outside room was resting on them.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Marine asked, seeing Rhen look trough the window and not move for more than ten minutes. Rhen nodded slightly, not saying a word. "Alright, so what did Lars do to you?" Marine asked suddenly, making Rhen turn around like burnt.

"How do you know?" She asked, almost desperately as Marine raised an eyebrow at her.

"Know what? Everybody talks about the fact that you and Lars got stuck in the storage room. The rumors are running fast around a teenagers institution." Marine said as Rhen turned around, sighing.

"Great, now I'll have to live the rest of my life with a paper bag on my head." Rhen growled. Marine stood up from Rhen's bed and sighed.

"I'll see you tomorrow. Get well until then, and clear your mind. The trials are approaching" She said, before closing the door. Rhen sighed, wiping her eyes as like she cried.

"Easy for you to say" She said, looking down.

…..............................................

Real: it's getting better and better!! (^_^) but I can't see the comments coming, tough...(-_-)

Evil: yah, that's because you're still here.

Good: * jumps on the window *

Evil: ignore her, she's insane. Continue writing your storie(s)

Real: that's probably for the best.... (~_~)


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Rhen sighed loudly after Marine left her room, sinking her face into the pillow. She remembered everything that happened in the storage room with Lars. She remembered how nice Lars acted back then and still couldn't believe that it was really him back there. She could have sworn that she never heard him talking like that to anyone. All these thoughts lasted for several minutes as she philosophized over each thought throughly. After several minutes passed, she heard the door open again. She turned around to see Marine standing in her room, her arms crossed.

"I came to check on you" She said, grinning. "I see you didn't improve at all" she added frowning at Rhen.

"It has been only six minutes!" Rhen said, slightly annoyed.

"I know something that will do you good. A walk trough the jungle" Marine said, smiling happily. Rhen groaned standing up form her bed.

"No way, I have like a thousand reasons for not coming" Rhen said determined. Marine shot her a 'let me hear them' smirk. "It's dark, scary, dark, there are weird sounds coming from the bushes, it's dark, there are weird creatures jumping in your face, it's dark, there are snakes... Did I mention that it's dark? Should I continue?" Rhen said, crossing her arms.

"If the next four hundred ninety five reasons are that it's dark, I'd rather not hear them" Marine said ironically. Rhen shot her a death glare. "Fine, fine, I'm leaving. But don't come crying at me when you will be bored and upset" Marine said, slamming the door closed.

Rhen sighed once again resting her elbows on the window still and looking in the black night. On the opposite side were the sorcerer's dorms. Rhen didn't pay much attention to that area of the building until then. For some reason, she hoped that Lars will appear soon enough. She didn't know why she felt that urge to see him again. But as like the stars heard her wish, at one of the windows, the curtains were pushed away, revealing the light from the room.

Rhen's eyes shined when she recognized Lars' green hair and eyes. Seeing him again made her face muscles act involuntarily as her lips curled into a smile. Resting her head with her cheeks in her palms, she remained there, looking straight forward for several minutes. Lars seemed to do the same thing, remaining silent all the time being. Although they were at like five meters distance from eachother, none of them dared to say anything, being sure that the first thing they could say was related to the scene in the storage room.

Hearing the bell that announced that it was time for bed, Rhen took a one more look at the green eyes staring at her before pulling the curtains and blowing out the candle.

Looking at the classroom ceiling, Rhen philosophized the same things over and over again, never getting tired of it. The classmates were noisy and disturbing, but Rhen didn't pay attention to them. On the window still was Marine, looking at Rhen with a worried look on her face.

"Miss Wolfgang! I've been nice to you for more than a year." The teacher said, waking both Marine and Rhen, along with the other students from their thoughts. Marine rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, I've been nice too." Marine mumbled, getting down form the window still and shooting the teacher a death glare before sitting to her place next to Rhen. She threw her a pitiful look and sighed. Rhen looked at her confused.

"What?" She whispered

"You're hopeless. You have other priorities now and look what you're thinking about..." Marine whispered back.

"What priorities? And how do you know what I'm thinking about?" Rhen whispered, intrigued.

"'What priorities?'?! The trials? You will never get out of this school if you don't pass them" Marine growled back bitterly but quietly. Rhen frowned, irritated.

"What about you? You came here to 'observe' and it has been a year and guess what: you're still here!" She responded angrily.

"What I'm doing and why I'm doing it is my business." Marine said in a tone Rhen never heard before. "You think your existence is pointless in this world. Well, let me tell you something: it isn't. You are more important that you would ever imagine. And I know you think I'm crazy now, but you'll see how right I am when you'll find out the truth." Marine made a pause, still looking at Rhen, who was looking back, not being able to say anything for a good five seconds.

"Wha-" She started, confused.

"And one more thing." Marine started, cutting her off. "I'm not telling you to stop from thinking at the things you consider the most important. It's only human for you to do so. What I'm telling you is to pay attention and concentrate at what's happening around you too."

"Miss Wolfgang!" The teacher almost yelled, annoyed. Marine popped up straight and stood up.

"That's all I had to say. And I'll be leaving now, thank you" She started, walking towards the door. She stopped before the door, turning around at the teacher who was dumbstruck, smiling ironically. "You've been a wonderful teacher. I hope we'll meet again" She said sarcastically, leaving and slamming the door shut behind her.

Rhen remained dumbstruck, looking at the closed door. She felt like Marine knew exactly what she was thinking. Though most of the things Marine said made no sense, she knew she was absolutely right about everything she said. Frowning determined, she took the book in front of her and started reading.

............................................................

Good: * yawn * I'm tired.

Real: you?! You are tired???!! What about me, I've been spending my last night thinking of a way to write this chapter.!!!

Evil: * pokes parrot in cage * gets bitten *

Evil: waah! You little devil! * turns parrot into flower *

Real: (O_O) please tell me that you didn't just turn Lulubell into a flower...

Evil: yeah, I actually did (^_^)


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

Rhen slid her finger down the list of names under the bold "Failed" letters. Not finding her name listed there the first time kind of frustrated her. She thought she didn't read attentively enough and searched for her name again. Eventually, after reading the list of the failed the fifth time, she moved on to the passed list.

Noticing her name on the list, her face transformed immediately, leaving a wide smile covering it. She immediately forgot about her fight with Marine and started running around the campus, searching for her to tell her the big news.

Not being able to find her anywhere, not even in her room, and receiving the answer "no" every time she asked anybody if they saw her, Rhen caught her breath after all the running and decided to search for her around the crowded town. She frowned confused at the fact that there weren't as many people as usual on the streets.

Spotting Marine she felt relieved that she finally found a familiar face. There was some other person next to Marine. Rhen's eyes widened, remembering the figure of the southern boy, covered in rags, and matching it with the person next to Marine. Marine sighed in relief as she saw Rhen, grabbed the boy's arm and rushed up to Rhen.

"What the-...?" Rhen started as Marine grabbed her arm with her free hand and started dragging her and the boy after her.

"No questions, we don't have time" Marine said continuing her way determined.

"If you at least tell me where we're going, I'll follow you" Rhen said, said calmly as Marine let go of her arm and stopped. Finding out that the destination was the castle, Rhen promised she won't ask any more questions at Marine's demand.

"You don't need to drag me anymore, y' know" The boy said annoyed as Marine grinned sheepishly, apologizing as the boy regained his freedom.

The castle's garden was almost half the surface of the entire city of Veldarah. And walking through it was pleasing and boring at the same time. The oriental flowers' colors were appealing and were almost calling you to them. But the size of the garden gave you a state of boredom immediately after you looked where the castle was located. Rhen just followed Marine and the southerner, her thought flying away to what might happen next.

"I heard you passed the trials." Marine started as Rhen returned to reality. "Congrats." She continued, looking at Rhen with a straight face.

"Thanks, it wasn't big deal" Marine opened her mouth at Rhen's comment to say something but closed it shut, immediately after, giving up on what she was about to say.

Entering the huge room, Rhen felt intimidated by the large statues that were sitting on the sides. A red carpet leaded the way to the empress as on the both sides guards were watching their moves with a critic eye. While walking silently between the observing sets of eyes, Rhen noticed a person dressed in Shadwood Academy's uniform. A sorcerer's uniform, more exactly.

"Rhen?!" The green haired sorcerer asked confused, widening his eyes.

"Lars?!" Rhen responded, mirroring his actions. An elbow received from Marine in her arm made her shake her amazement off and continue her way to the throne. The empress was sitting on a throne with a straight face that didn't seem smug, but rather worried. Another young woman was sitting beside the throne. Her white clothes were contrasting her blood red hair and sapphire eyes. Marine tensed up as soon as she noticed the red haired woman.

"You're dead" The boy whispered to Marine

"You're not helping at all!" Marine roared back as Rhen looked confused at the two.

The empress threw a penetrating look at Rhen and examined her for a few seconds before turning her head to the red haired woman.

"Is she the one, priestess?" She asked in a chanting voice receiving a nod from the red haired woman. Turning her sight to Marine and waiting for her to agree, she received another nod.

"Interesting..." The empress made a pause. "You like waiting until the evil makes its first strike, don't you, poison guardian?" She asked, looking at Marine.

"Hey, I wanted her to be prepared. We don't want to take the risk of throwing an unexperienced fighter in the battle between good and evil." Marine responded aggressively.

"The chosen one is always ready" The empress replied with her teeth clenched.

"You never have too much experience." Marine said, bitterly, closing the empresses mouth as Rhen looked at them puzzled. She was trying hardly to find an explanation for everything that was happening, unfortunately failing. She heard the empress asking her a question but she couldn't be able to answer.

"She does not know?" The empress asked, looking at Marine then at the priestess.

"It was the Oracle's order" the priestess answered. Rhen continued to look around confused and try to find an explanation with the same result. "We do not have time to explain her everything now. Tell her why she is here, Telin de'Baron" The priestess said as the empress nodded.

"The girl shall find the remaining druids, bringing them safely to the Sun Shrine in Aveyond, before adventuring again and find the missing druids. When all the druids are gathered, the evil will not be able to do anything" The empress said as Rhen looked at Marine and the boy like she was asking a clearer explanation. "The guardians shall go with their druids as well to offer them full protection."

"May I ask a question? What are the druids and what are the guardians?" Rhen asked, speaking for the first time since she got there.

"The druids are the ones who hold the base of our existence and the guardians are creatures who assure their safety." The priestess said. "For example, your two companions here are two of the guardians" The priestess said, looking at Marine and the southerner boy. Rhen widened her mouth and eyes looking at Marine who sighed guilty.

"It's true." Marine started as the boy uncovered his head revealing his dark red hair. "He is Rajah, the guy you met the day you came here" Marine continued as Rajah nodded. "Oh and Talia, you should probably tell Raj what you've been thinking over and over again" Marine said, looking at the priestess.

"Tell me what?" The red haired boy asked, curious. The priestess hesitated at the guardians' questions, but the pressure eventually made her speak.

"Eithera has gone missing" Rhen didn't immediately know what she was talking about, but after several seconds, she thought 'Eithera' was one of those druids. And judging by Rajah's reaction, it was probably the druid he was guarding.

"I will inform your teachers of your departure" The empress said, talking over the shocked Rajah. "You should take someone with you, it will be a dangerous quest."

"Can't Marine and Rajah come with me?" Rhen asked, looking at the two guardians.

"They have other priorities now. They should go straight to the Sun Shrine, before Marine goes back to retrieve her druid." The empress said.

"I'll go with her" a male voice was heard from behind as Lars spoke after a long period of silence. He listened everything from between the two guards. Rhen's eyes widened when she heard Lars' voice. She looked down to hide her emotions, listening to the discussion between Lars and the empress. A smile made its place on her face as it was settled for Lars to come with her.

"Now leave, children. And good luck on your journey." The empress said after a few more discussions.

"And remember, Rajah and Marine, straight to the Sun Shrine" Talia added with the voice of a caring parent.

…........................................................

Evil: ZOMG! Yes! Finally, things are starting to get shape.

Real: they do, don't they? I'm so proud of me ^_^

Good: Oh, me too! ^_^

Evil: * waters the parrot-flower in the cage *

Real: -_-... Glad I don't have an elephant as a pet.

Evil: ooooh, then I'd turn it into a sequoia tree * imagines *


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

Lars moved out of the way abruptly as a crow made its way, not caring if it was about to hit someone in the face or not. Lars started throwing curses at the 'stupid bird' before almost stumbling over; fact that made him throw even more curses at the Wildwoods. The fact that he was with another three people his age that didn't know more than he did about the Wildwoods made the things even more complicated. He yawned bored, looking up and trying to figure out if it's getting dark or not. However, it seemed like the Wildwoods really didn't like visitors as the firs were blocking completely the light to come between their branches.

"Weren't you guys supposed to go to the Northern Empire?" Rhen asked suddenly, crossing her arms.

"We were..." Rajah started, scratching the back of his head confused, looking around. "But we thought it was better if we gave you a hand... or that was our intention" Rajah added.

"Yeah, we'd have been better on ourselves." Lars said, bitterly. Marine rolled her eyes at Lars' comment and threw him an annoyed look. "What?" He asked as annoyed as Marine looked at him.

"Want an advice? Chill down. We'll just help you graduate and then leave for Aveyond" She said, scowling at him. Lars returned the look confused.

"What do you mean by that?" He asked, softer than he spoke until then, receiving an smirk in return. Widening his eyes in realization, he suddenly got agitated. Almost stumbling over again, Lars tried to clear his mind.

"The empress said something about you, guardians. I guess you have some special abilities to guard something as druids." Rhen started, looking at the two. Trying to look like he's not paying attention to their chat, Lars sped up, looking around.

"Oh, we do have some special abilities" Marine started, looking at Rajah, receiving a nod. "Raj can control fire and I have the power of telekinesis." She added, looking at Lars who sped up even more.

"Tele-what?" Rhen asked confused as Lars suddenly slowed down, to hear better. "What's that?"

"Telekinesis, lets you control things with your mind...." Marine said, smirking as Lars was about to bump into a tree "On a basis of mind reading" She added as Lars suddenly stopped from his speed walk.

"I could have sworn!" He yelled, receiving weird looks from Rhen and Rajah. "...that those mushrooms are poisonous..." He added as Marine threw him a toothy smile. The fact that Marine could find out in every second what he thinks about made Lars even more tense and annoyed as he eventually stumbled over.

Having to travel trough a forest with various feral animals and Marine mocking him indirectly … and almost stumbling over quite frequently was a nightmare for Lars. Hoping they would find the stupid hind faster and get rid of at least Marine's mocks, the situation would get far better, even with the animals and the stumbling. The fact that he would get to finish a quest alone with Rhen and become famous was the only positive thing he could think of right now.

"Is that a tavern?" Rhen asked suddenly, spotting a yellow light coming from between the trees. "I can't see, it could be a house, too"

"However, prepare your knees, they will have to crawl on hard wood floors if it's not a tavern." Marine added. To her disbelief, it was a tavern, as Rhen guessed from the first time, so she didn't have to see Lars crawling on the floors, begging the owners of the house to let him sleep at their place.

The room was small and to everyone's despair, it had only three beds. Before Lars could blink, one of three beds was occupied by Rajah who mentioned how tired he was. While Lars was walking towards the next unoccupied bed, he received a death glare from Marine that warned him to stay back.

One out of three beds was left unoccupied leaving Rhen and Lars to choose from. They looked at each other, not actually having any emotion. But something in Rhen's eyes made Lars give up the empty bed and announce that he'll be the one who sleeps on the floor.

"No, you can't do that, I'll sleep on the floor" Rhen said, refusing the bed.

"I don't think you know what you're saying. That floor is harder than stone"

"I still can't let you sleep on the floor."

"Yes you can" Lars said, ending the little argue between them and deciding the fate for his back.

"Don't worry, Rhen" Marine's voice came from another side of the room, feeling like a scratch on the brain to Lars. "Lars' sorry noble butt just _had_ to learn sooner or later how's it like to sleep on the floor."

"I bet you know better" Lars said, with a smirk.

"Stop it, you two" Rhen said, not affecting their fight at all.

"Well, at least I..."

"Marine!" Rhen's fierce voice cut her off.

"Alright, alright, I'll leave him pain peacefully. Sheesh" She said, looking over at Rajah's bed. "Hey, Raj" She called, receiving no response from under the blanket. "Raa-aaj.."She called out again before sighing at the silence.

"Is he okay?" Rhen asked, worried, knowing they've been there for only five minutes.

"Yeah, he does this all the time. He loves sleeping a lot. I'll have a hard time tomorrow morning" Marine said, chuckling.

"You can say that again" Rhen said, smiling playfully at Lars, who just sat on the hard floor, giving her a confused look.

After the lights were turned off, Lars started to turn left and right, in order to find the most comfortable position, if there were any. All his moving was making noises on the wooden floor, while he occasionally hit elbow on the hard floor, accompanying it with an 'ouch'.

"Be quiet, noble ass!" Marine's bitter voice came from the room. Lars didn't actually listen to what she said and continued to roll around until he could stay in a position that could be called 'less painful than the others'.

"Lars... Lars" Rhen's voice chanted trough Lars' ears as his eyes popped open. To reveal two familiar faces. "It wasn't that hard to wake you up as I remember" Rhen added as Lars sat up. He opened his mouth to say something. _"That's because __**you**__ woke me up"_ was left unsaid as Marine's irritated face changed his mood.

"Finally! I've been shaking you to wake up forever" She said, standing up and her face changing from annoyed to desperate. "Oh, no, Raj!" She exclaimed, rushing over to the other sleeping guardian.

"What happened?" Lars whispered to Rhen while Marine was yelling insanely at the other male companion to wake up.

"She struggled to wake him up for the past half an hour. She got chased around the room with a pillow two times and threatened she'll be thrown out the window at least every five minutes. And when she finally managed to wake him up, you were still there, waiting to be waked up" Rhen explained as Lars started laughing under his breath, wiling to see annoying Marine being thrown out the window as she was violently pulling the white blanket from Rajah's bed, not being able to obtain it and eventually being hit with a pillow in the face with such force that she was thrown back.

"Alright... Know what?" She started, irritated, standing up. "You've been a pain in the ass for far too much. I'll get that bucket of water" She said turning her back to Rajah but receiving no response from him.

"A full bucket of water..."

Silence.

"Cold and icy and wet..."

"Alright, alright, I'm up" Rajah said, popping out of the bed only to be thrown on the hallway along with Lars under the pretext that 'the girls needed to change'.

"This will take forever..." Lars groaned, bored after the first five minutes. He didn't receive any answer from Rajah, who was leaning on the wall with his back, looking blankly at the opposite wall.

Lars frowned, not finding an explanation to these two guardian's weird behavior. They were totally different from all the weird people he knew but their appearance was as human as it could be. Analyzing it better, he noticed how different Marine and Rajah were, compared to each other. But not actually being able to know what kind of temper the boy next to him had, he just thought he'd find out.

"Are you guys always this annoying?" He asked, sounding more irritant than he planned to. Rajah didn't move his gaze or react in any physical way.

"That's nice" He simply said in a sarcastic and yet the most calm way a person can speak.

"Sorry, I just thought that if you live for a long period with a person like Marine, you start acting like her" Lars explained, waiting for a response from the guardian. Rajah turned his gaze towards Lars for the first time.

"It actually has adverse reactions" He said as Lars made a face that demanded him a more detailed explanation. "Sleeping under an academy bed isn't quite the definition of comfortable" He said, chuckling. Lars started laughing holding out his hand.

"So we're even" He said as Rajah took his hand and shook, smiling friendly.

…...................................................

Good: Hey, evil ^_^

Evil: What??

Good: do you realize how ironic is your name??

Evil: Why??

Good: because you're dead and if you spell your name backwards it says "LIVE" ^_^

Evil: O_O

Real: oh, yeah? Then spell "love" backwards. It's "EVOL" which it's spelled ee-vohl :P Pretty close, huh?

Good: O_O * dies *


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

Heavy feet were applying pressure on the soft brown ground, leaving footsteps between the fir needles. The cold, itchy atmosphere that flew around the Wildwoods seemed nothing like the way it was before. The paths seemed much more complicated and the cold air wasn't making the journey easier. Rhen and Lars' limbs were freezing and the baggages with provisions were heavier and heavier on their shoulders. As Lars expected, Rajah was suffering the most out of them in this environment that wasn't fitting his temperature. To Lars' dismay, Marine wasn't affected at all by the low temperature but she just seemed as lively as always.

"Why me?" Rajah started all of a sudden, after a long period of silence without Marine's mocks. "Why did you have to take _me _with you and not any other guardian?" He complained, gritting his teeth. Marine looked at him straight faced.

"Because, one: you're my best friend, and two: if I would have taken any of them we would eventually end up fighting and failing the quest with the Oracle scolding _me_, of course" She said, making a pause "And then, I wouldn't have enjoyed two new friends' great company" she added, smiling and looking at Lars and Rhen.

Lars gave her a weird look. Did Marine just say 'two friends'? He groaned silently, feeling like after a fight where it was his fault and the other person would be the first one to want to make up. Marine was another victim of his smugness and he knew it. He also knew that if he wouldn't have started mocking her right in the day she came to Shadwood, they would have been in better relations. The only thing that made Marine different from his other 'victims' was that she actually knew what to say when she was fighting with him. Seeing that, though he was at fault for her behavior, she was the one to ask for friendship, he felt sorry for his behavior.

Looking at Rhen, Lars saw another 'victim' of his that had been able to fight his rudeness. Though in a different way Marine did. She didn't need to put so much effort to make him stop. This was the thing that was bugging him the most. How did Rhen do that? After the day in the storage room, he stopped acting so rude with her. And that was only because she had a plain conversation with him. After than plain conversation, Lars felt the urge to be as close as possible to Rhen, but ration held him in place, telling him that he'll never accomplish what he wants to. However, another voice was telling him to do what he makes him happy. But every time the voice was telling him this, the ration's determined voice would overcome and cover the optimistic voice.

"Why did my druid have to be in the middle of the Southern Isle desert?" Rajah asked, trying to warm himself up by rubbing his palms and arms. "Why did _my_ druid disappear? Why didn't your druid disappear?" He asked, looking at Marine somehow annoyed.

"Eithera is not in the middle of the Southern Isle desert" Marine said, smiling triumphantly. "She's deep in a cave. And **the cave** is in the middle of the Southern Isle desert" She added, matter-of-factly, obviously ignoring what he lastly said.

"Whatever" Rajah replied, rolling his eyes. "My life would have been better if I wouldn't have been a guardian. I just wanted to sleep" Marine threw him a penetrating glare. "And then, I would have been living with my master that threw me in a cage with ferocious animals everyday only to gather money and keep them all for himself...." Rajah seemed to think about it. "I'm perfectly fine as I am" He reformulated, smiling as Marine did the same thing , reminding him an amusing past even, explaining it in detail so Rhen and Lars could also understand. Within minutes Marine and Rajah found themselves telling amusing childhood tales to Rhen and Lars, making themselves forget about the cold weather.

Seeing Rajah and Marine laughing and having so much fun together generated a spark of jealousy within Lars. Why couldn't he and Rhen be like them? They were the same age, roughly the same tough experiences suffered and the same teenage temper. But yet something was different. Rajah and Marine weren't afraid to talk to each other. As the though flew through Lars' mind, he frowned, thinking how can something so easy to do can be so hard.

"Is it me or it's getting colder?" Rhen asked, rubbing her palms together.

"What do you..." Marine started

"You're not in the position to speak." Lars said before Marine could finish the sentence. "It may be colder because the sun may be setting"

"Then we should set a camp and, most important, a fire" Rajah said, shivering.

The bags on their shoulders weren't making their presence so uncomfortably as the cold was reaching their inner heat hurriedly. Afraid that they may fall into hypothermia, they stopped in a spot where the trees weren't growing so close to each other. They let the bags down, sighing in relief as they could finally feel their shoulders again. As soon as they stopped, the question "who goes to get firewood?" popped up with Rajah being the first eager volunteer.

"Oh, no you don't!" Marine started, crossing her arms "I like these woods and I don't want to see them incinerated already" She said as she rushed after Rajah, not wanting to take risks.

Lars and Rhen looked at each other. The awkward silence was so annoying they both went to opposite bags and opened them, taking the blankets out. Lars looked weirdly at the thin fabrics, not actually knowing how that would warm them up. Dropping it, he finished taking his two blankets out, going into the middle of the circle they created and kicking out of the way all the fir fallen needles.

Rhen sat on her lavender blanket and watched Lars as he did what he did, not knowing if she should say something or just keep quiet. As she was opening her mouth and the words weren't coming out, she gave up and decided to go for the second option. Seeing that Lars wasn't giving signs that he wanted to be communicative, Rhen sighed, crossed her arms and her legs sitting on her blanket, waiting for Rajah and Marine to come back. She heard Lars throw himself on his own blanket with a thud followed by an 'ouch' before the sound of the ruffling blanket was heard. The sound didn't cease to come trough her ears and annoyed her slightly.

"Stop it" Rhen said in monotone as Lars eyed her. He didn't seem to have any emotion, but just looked at her straight faced. Just realizing what she just said and more important, how she said it, Rhen widened her eyes, looking away from Lars' gaze.

He just stopped making the sound, not replying in any way. The firm command that came from Rhen made his brain send commands to the muscles involuntarily, making all his movements paralyze. Not actually understanding why himself, he dropped it once again, not wanting to waste time thinking over confusing things that didn't seem to have such a simple answer.

Realizing that Marine and Rajah have been gone for more than a half an hour, Rhen started to worry. Plus, the pressure applied on her was making everything more difficult. She just hoped they'd come back safe and sound to have someone to chat with.

From between the trees came Rajah with his arms full of thin and thick branches. He sounded like he was talking to someone as a very short shadow could be spotted a few meters behind him. Rhen didn't really see what that that creature was. Rajah walked slowly up to the place where Lars cleared the area and dropped the wood on the ground.

Rhen and Lars looked curiously at the creature that has been following Rajah. Widening their eyes in shock, both of them couldn't react for several seconds. Rajah started saying something but they only heard the first part which included "Don't worry..." because their mouths hanged open, looking at the creature they had just a few meters away from them.

Involuntarily, Rhen picked her sword from under the blankets and started towards the dark brown wolf, instinctively, in order to make their life longer. The animal, which didn't seem to want to attack anyone seemed shocked at the sudden attack and moved out of the way fast enough to frustrate Rhen. She charged for another attack at the beast but her sword was blocked by another weapon used for slicing. She looked at the scimitar in front of her eyes and then at its owner. Ready to throw curses at Rajah for not letting her slice the wolf in two halves, she was cut off by his irritated voice.

"The hell you're doin'?" He asked, frowning at her.

"Killing a beast and saving our lives, thank you" Rhen said, pissed off by Rajah's behavior. Knowing she had all the rights to kill the ferocious animal, she didn't find an explanation for what Rajah was doing.

"You didn't listen to what I said before, didn't you?" He said as their weapons lost contact. Rhen shook her head no, looking away straight-faced. "I said 'Don't worry, guys, this is just Marine'" Rajah repeated himself, as Rhen widened her eyes in amazement and looked at the animal while Lars let out a loud 'huuuuh?', making the first sound after a period of silence.

Rajah turned to the wolf that he claimed it was their other female companion and frowned, throwing the animal a confused look.

"I thought you told them about the shape shifting" He said as re received a weird look from the wolf, as weird as a wolf can look at someone.

"I thought you did" The wolf said with a female voice. Amazingly, the voice seemed very similar to Marine's to Lars and Rhen. The wolf let out a sigh and Rajah covered his forehead with his palm. A sudden 'poof!' came from the wolf which was soon surrounded by dust and from behind the dust came Marine.

Rhen and Lars watched the event in utter shock, asking for explanations. Being told about the ability of the guardians to change themselves under a shape of an animal each, they finally came out of their black confusion and finally being able to go to sleep peacefully.

"The hind lures only men here?" Rhen asked, suddenly, looking at the stone statues that surrounded them. All of them were undoubtedly males. "I take it it's a female" Rhen added, looking around the area, not wanting to go any further.

"And that means only Rajah and Lars will be affected" Marine added, looking at them. They shot her a 'what?' look. "You're remaining out of the hind's cave" she said, firmly.

"What?"

"What are you saying?" They both started asking questions intrigued by Mairne's affirmation.

"She's right" Rhen said, taking Marine's part. "We don't want to have you guys being turned into stone" she added as the boys silenced, humph-ing.

The entrance of the cave was an ordinary cave entrance but it was guarded by several male statues that were sitting around and between the trees. Each man's face was deformed into scared grimaces. The ugly expressions that were surrounding them was giving them an uneasy feeling. Rhen's and Marine's heart started beating faster at seeing the many discouraging figures around them. They both took their time to calm down for a bit before entering the cave.

Lars watched silently from a couple of meters away from the cave as the girls entered. He then turned his gaze to Rajah, who was yawning loudly, obviously not paying attention at what was happening around him. Without hesitation, Lars silently left towards the cave, entering as softly as he could. He heard the girls' footsteps ahead of him. Suddenly, the footsteps sound stopped followed by amazed hisses.

….......................................................

Real: w00t~ school's out!! Summer vacation, here comes (drums please) Wolphie~

Evil: oh, yeah, here we go again, only a 4 pages chapter and looo~ooo~ots of babling.

Good: don't be so harsh. She had even shorter chapters before.

Real: * sits in the corner * (;_;)

Evil: omg, no wai,! She just kept quiet! (^u^) Paradise, here comes (drums please) Evil Wolphie~

Real: * sniffles *


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

Without hesitation, Lars silently left towards the cave, entering as softly as he could. He heard the girls' footsteps ahead of him. Suddenly, the footsteps sound stopped followed by amazed hisses. Hearing the hisses, he silently rushed up in order to see what happened to the girls. Conscious that he was more vulnerable to the hind than the girls would ever be, he slowed down, trying to focus his attention on the figures that represented Marine and Rhen and nothing else that found its place in the cave. Reaching a large room and the end of the cave's hallway, Lars could see them two, standing still, tough not seeming that they were made of stone at all.

Thinking that this may be a mere trick used by them to avoid the hind to curse them, Lars didn't jump to help them, but just remained still behind a wall, avoiding to look at the large creature in the room at all costs.

Just when he thought that nothing could possibly go wrong as he was guarding the girls' back, he heard a enchanting melody coming from the room he girls were in. The melody seemed like it was coming from a lyre. It sounded like no other lyre song he ever heard before. The sound he always heard from the street-performers who were trying to get a coin were certainly entertaining. But the sound that the hind's lyre was making was something so delicate it didn't sound natural possible.

Lars remained paralyzed, listening to the song for several minutes, before a cloud of darkness started covering his eyes and his limbs started going numb before his mind stopped working.

Multiple tunelessly sounds started chanting trough Lars' ears as his involuntarily halfway opened eyes started distinguishing colors and shapes slowly. The voices started slowly to resemble his three companions' voices and the colors and shapes, their appearance. Their voices started suddenly to change their tonality as they become more agitated. He suddenly felt lifted up by his hands and forced to stand on his own legs.

"What the hell happened?" He suddenly asked as he realized where he was.

"What do you think it happened?" Marine started aggressively "You passed out once the hind started playing the lyre."

"What were you doing there, Lars?" Rhen asked, suddenly in a firm tone, silencing Marine. Lars looked down and refused to answer. "Lars!" Rhen said, almost shouting.

"Let's don't start a fight, shall we?" Rajah said, coming between Lars and Rhen. "The important thing is that Lars is okay, and fortunately, still made of flesh, and that you guys managed to beat up the hind and get her lyre" He said, optimistically, grinning triumphantly.

"The lyre?" Lars suddenly reacted, looking at the three. "You got the lyre!" He exclaimed happily, receiving nods from everyone.

"All being said, shall we be leaving before Daena goes missing too?" Marine started, looking at Rajah "I have an uneasy feeling about this" She added, slightly agitated.

The way back to the northern part of the Eastern Empire was as though as it was the first time. Thinking that at least one of them remembered the way back, they moved on bravely. Their logic of "he's following her, she's following him" was completely wrong as they finally managed to get lost. Again.

After several hours of non-stop walking, they finally could see some sort of light coming from between the trees. Happily concluding that it was an inn, they rushed up to get there as fast as possible as it was obvious that the sun already set a couple of hours ago. The silence of the forest that was broken by howls and crickets wasn't getting their attention anymore as all of these experiences were to end soon.

The room they rented was small and the beds was merely a pile of straws on the ground covered by a patchy blanket that seemed to be made out of a recycled sack. Rhen and Lars argued with Marine and Rajah but the two ended up not sleeping on those "luxurious beds".

As soon as the argument stooped, Rhen and Lars fell over exhausted, not caring that they landed on the beds they criticized so much earlier.

_Dear Rhen and Lars, _

_As you may have already noticed, our bags along with ourselves gone missing. To answer all of your questions at once, we left the tavern last night in order to get as fast as possible to Daena. Although I (Marine) have already a feeling that she won't be there by the time we will arrive. Make sure to go straight to Shadwood after you read this note. Without us it may be more dangerous for you two. Take care!_

_P.S.: Raj says that if you go down South, make sure to take more water with you than you think you'll need (He made me write this) _

_P.P.S.: We will meet again someday, be sure of that. _

_Wolfgang Marina Gabriela _

_and_

_Ahjem Rajah _

As Rhen finished reading the note out loud, she folded the paper two times and put it in her pocket before looking at Lars with a straight yet emotionless expression. He didn't have any reaction as well, but just remained looking at her with the same straight face. The awkward silence lingered in the room as their motionless state helped them look like statues.

Breaking the silence and almost making Rhen flinch, Lars stood up remaining silent, grabbed his bag and left the room. Startled, Rhen grabbed her bag reflexively as well and rushed up after Lars calling him to wait up. Lars said goodbye to the tavern keeper and left the building silently being followed by Rhen. Walking in an alert rhythm trough between the trees, Lars kept avoiding to answer Rhen's numerous questions.

"Lars!" Rhen suddenly yelled, making him stop abruptly. "Why won't you talk to me?" He didn't answer nor move for a couple of seconds before staring to walk abruptly.

"Why would you care? Let's get moving already" He said in monotone. Rhen's cheeks started getting red as she clenched her teeth.

"I care as you're the only person I can take with me" Rhen said, the words drowning in her throat. Lars stopped once again, turning around to face her. The anger that was written on her face and the words that she just said softened him. She really intended of taking him with her.

"Why me of all people?" He started, not actually caring for her to answer the questions but rather to hear her talk again. She seemed to hesitate at his sudden question as she looked down to avoid his emerald penetrating eyes.

"_Because you were there for me since the beginning." _was left unsaid as the sentences and words shuffled trough Rhen's head in order for her to say a proper sentence. Rhen looked up at him and showed a wide smile.

"Because you know what this journey's about" She said as Lars smiled back at her, saying once again that they should be going. As soon as they both were walking side by side, their slimes faded, each of them knowing that their smile was fake.

Lars sat on a chair on the hallway, shuffling his feet, waiting for Rhen to come out of her room. He reviewed the events that made him and Rhen graduate from their apprentice states. The way back to Veldarah had been shorter than he remembered and the graduation happened so fast, he was afraid not to blink and miss everything. Looking at his brand new blue full-fledged sorcerer blue uniform made his pride grow even more. The fact that his uniform had so many layers made him think that he will finish slower than Rhen, but his doubts seemed to be false as after he finished, he found himself waiting for more than ten minutes.

He was eager to see how Rhen's uniform looked like on her. Just when he was about to yell, asking if she was ready even though he would be shouted at by the other sword singers in the area, Rhen made her appearance trough the door.

Rhen's lips were moving but Lars couldn't hear anything coming out her mouth. Her new appearance could not, under any circumstances be compared to anything else she looked like before. Lars remained motionless, admiring the person that passed trough the door just a few moments earlier. After those few moments, Lars' mind just processed what Rhen has been saying and he finally reacted.

"What do you think?" Rhen asked as soon as she left her former room. Silence from Lars. "I don't know about it... "Silence. Rhen continued spinning around and examining her new outfit. "It's like noting I wore before" Silence. "Hmm, maybe I should"

"No!" Lars finally said, sounding more desperate than he intended to. Rhen threw him a weird look. "... it's nothing like what you wore before... You should try something different from time to time" Lars added, hopefully. Rhen just took one more look at the costume and nodded in approval.

Looking around confused, Lars couldn't react in any possible way. They just made their way back to the tavern in the WildWoods. The adventurers that were surrounding them at the crowded table were making Rhen feel insecure for some weird reason. Their laughs were almost so noisy Rhen was afraid that the glasses full of bad quality wine on the table would end up smashing into pieces. Nonetheless, they had to eat somewhere and as they didn't intend to rent a room only to eat in it and the idea of eating outside, luring the wild beasts to them was scaring the crap out of them, they chose the smallest bad out of three.

However, Rhen started to think that the idea of eating outside wasn't that bad as soon as she saw the crowd of hungry, noisy people. Suddenly, a sound of smashed glass caught everyone's attention as dozens of heads were turned towards the place where the sound came from.

The one responsible for breaking the bottle was a woman, the bottle being broken in one of the men's head. The drunk man stood up with one hand on his head and started making stammered sounds which couldn't be understood by anyone in the room. The crowd looked at the two, not giving any signs of wanting to do something. The drunk man, after finishing his philosophical speech, grabbed a wooden bat that had been laying on the ground and lifted it above his head.

"Woah, woah, woah! Wait a second!" Lars said, stopping between the woman and the drunk man.

"We don't want fights, do we?" Rhen asked, walking out of the crowd and looking at the silent adventurers.

"Hell no!" One man from the crowd said as Lars and Rhen whimpered silently, startled. "Fight! Fight! Fight!" The adventurers started, in unison.

"Make way, make way, people!" A voice from behind the crowd was heard as the men stopped gradually. The tavern keeper showed up in front of the crowd with an angry face and put his hands on his hips. "The hella's going on here?" He growled.

"She threatened me!" The drunk man said stammering, pointing at the woman with the bat.

"He harassed me!" The woman said, pointing at the man. The tavern keeper looked at Lars, frowning.

"I tried to stop them!" Lars said as the tavern keeper started talking over him before he could finish the sentence.

"Enough! If I hear one more word, I'll kick you three weirdoes out!"

"He's drunk, for God's damn sake!" Rhen growled at the tavern keeper before he scowled at her .

The outdoor entrance to the tavern was filled with Lars', Rhen's and the woman's screams as they were booted out of the tavern, landing on the dusty ground with a thud.

"And stay out!" Rhen clenched her eyes at the slammed door before rolling her eyes. After they dusted their selves, Rhen and Lars looked at the white-haired lady. Her hair had that color, even tough she didn't seem to be older than twenty-six. She looked at the two with a confused face.

"What?"

…........................................................

Evil: oh, oh, oh! Let me tell them, let me, let me!  
Real: go ahead.

Evil: imagine this last scene like this: the white-haired woman (we all already know who she is) with a chibi face and a sweatdrop on the lower part and Rhen and Lars being kuro in the background with shiny eyes and evil grins. Omg, that's what she (points at real) thought of immediately after she wrote that, neeee??

Real: Soo desu~ne. (^_^) Any anime fanatic would imagine that after reading that part XD

Good: * curls into ball * * sits in corner *

Good: you guys are creepy (o.O)

Real: Now imagine me and evil me replacing Rhen and Lars and then, good me replacing the white-haired woman.

Evil&Real: Kekekekekekekekeke~ D


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

"What's your name, again?" Lars asked. The white-haired woman groaned, rolling her eyes as she dusted herself.

"Elinidana'der'Lithir" She said, crossing her arms.

"Fine, _Elini..._" Lars said with a grin. The woman didn't seem to mind the nickname Lars just gave her as she started interrogating the two about their quest.

Being refused lots of times, Rhen didn't know what to do more to make Elini join their party. The tanned woman was indeed not interested in "fighting monsters aimlessly". Not really having any choice, and not wanting to have to encounter a three-headed wolf and almost die like the other day, Rhen sighed and decided to tell Elini the real reason why they want her in their party. Elini listened with a stoic expression, asking for another five minutes to think over the possibilities.

Finding that Elini would join their party, they were somehow relieved that they wouldn't be adventuring alone in dangerous places.

"From Veldt, a southern city." Elini responded to Rhen's question. "You really make a weird team." She added as Lars and Rhen looked at eachother. "But kids like you shouldn't be sent to such important tasks by theirselves. Good for you that I came across you" She added.

Lars looked annoyed at the new recruited member. This southern woman seemed to have joined the party only to be a pain in the ass with her superiority insults.

"Who're you calling kids?" he growled at the tanned woman that was walking just a few meters ahead him. Elini turned her head and looked at him over her shoulder with one light blue-ish green eye.

"Have you passed eighteen years of your life, northerner?" She asked in a most calm yet superior tone while turning her gaze on their path again.

"No" Lars responded, trying not to sound defeated.

"Then you shall not consider yourself as an adult. Same goes for the girl" Elini said as Rhen rolled her eyes and thought of how they would be like if they never invited Elini to join their party.

Listening to Elini's tales about how dangerous this world was and how they are less exposed to the danger now that they are three, Lars was starting to feel his eyes fall in his mouth because of the boredom. To his amazement, she suddenly went silent as the sound of her and Rhen's footsteps hitting the ground ceased. They both stopped moving as he could hear them whisper things to each other with a tensioned tone.

"What?! What the heck are you guys saying? I can't hear a thing!" Lars almost yelled annoyed. Hearing a tubby growl coming from between a couple of firs, he moved his head to see what made the sound, spotting horrified the noisy creature. Two death glares came from Elini and Rhen as a three-headed navy blue creature came from between the trees, snapping its teeth at them.

Lars and Rhen ended up with many severe cuts and wounds when the animal had only two or three poor scratches. After many attempts, one of the three heads had been cut by Rhen's sword. The animal let out unearthly squeals and grunts before charging with more hatred than ever. Receiving a lash in one of the hind legs from Elini, a lash that teared off most of his leg's skin, the canid started whimpering defeated as it ran trough between the trees, gulping in his ruffled wolf pride.

"Has anyone been bitten?" Elini asked almost desperately. She received a nod from Lars who made sure there were only claw scratches, but no response from Rhen who tried to concentrate over standing on her feet. Elini frowned at her and asked once again if they have been bitten, still receiving no answer.

"Rhen?" Lars asked just in the second Rhen started speaking.

"Why is everything so green?" She asked quietly. She started not to feel her feet anymore as she heard Elini yell something before Lars came running at her and grabbed her by her shoulders before she could fall on her back. Her eyes closed involuntarily before she felt a bitter taste in her mouth. Her eyes opening wide, she spit out all the bitter substance.

"What the hell is that?" She yelled, glaring at Elini and Lars.

"What do you say, it actually worked!" Lars exclaimed, looking at Elini. He looked back at Rhen, who just noticed she was sitting on the ground. "Can you stand?" Lars asked as Rhen didn't respond for a couple of seconds, noticing the closeness between them. Finally nodding in approval, Lars helped her up as Elini turned around and left without saying anything more only to make Lars and Rhen catch up with her and walk faster.

Having to pass the WildWoods was worse than simply findning a location pointed by many signposts. The weather was colder than Rhen and Lars remembered, but to their amazement, Elini was more prepared than they could have ever imagined. Wrapping a lot of southern patched clothes around her, the cold air wasn't reaching her tanned skin and she didn't have reasons to complain about 'how cold it was' like Rajah did.

Remembering how Rajah threw away, carelessly, the clothes he's been wearing in Veldarah after he though he wouldn't have any further use of them, Lars concluded that, both Rajah and Elini being from southern cities, they were either from different cities, either on different levels on the hierarchy in the same southern city. Elini's clothes were nice and clean when they met her. Those clothes were, indubitably, southern noble clothes. While Rajah's were dusted and not flamboyant as Elini's.

Following Elini trough the WildWoods for several hours made Rhen and Lars lose confidence in the fact that she actually knew where she was leading them to. Rhen remembered that she told her precisely that they are heading towards the temples of the druids, but it seemed like they've been walking for ages and they didn't get anywhere. But when Elini started throwing curses at a barred entrance of a cave, saying that 'they'll have to go to the other one', Rhen's suspicions faded away.

Elini was thougher than they thought she'll be. She was rarely letting them rest and when she did, after five minutes, she'd threaten them that if they don't follow her, she'll leave them behind. The way was tiresome and they received food only when Elini said it would be proper to eat. Just when they thought all the left sap that they had in their bodies left them helpless, Elini let out a content hiss and said that they're finally there.

Looking in front of them for th first time, Lars and Rhen seemed to catch more energy seeing the wonderful place they just cam across. Being nothing like the WildWoods, light and grassy, with some firs here and there, many small ponds with proportioned waterfalls, and green high hills, this place seemed like it wasn't even on the same continent with the WildWoods. Again not getting the chance to rest, Rhen and Lars had to follow Elini. Seeming unsure about something Elini continued her way to the right, eventually having them all come across a fierce dog that didn't want to let them pass.

"We've beaten up bigger dogs!" Rhen said, reaching for her sword but was stopped by Elini.

"This dog belongs to someone, we don't want to deal with the owner" She said as Rhen put her sword back in its rest on her back, sighing.

"I've got a bone!" Lars said, taking out a bone from his bag. Rhen and Elini looked at him blankly.

"Why do you have a bone, northerner?" Elini asked, rising an eyebrow. Lars just shrugged his shoulders, spinning around and throwing the bone as far as he could. The dog let out a loud content bark and rushed running after the bone. Before the dog could fetch the bone, they all passed and entered the dog's guarded territory. Concluding confused that all the fuss was for a garden, they went to the owner of the dog and asked for information. The garden wasn't similar to any other gardens they saw before. There were plants growing upside down, plants that didn't have an ordinary plant colors and everything else that wasn't plant-ish.

"Up north, dears, up north" the old woman said, smiling with her chubby face as Elini thanked her and left before Rhen and Lars could say anything.

"Umm, Elini" Lars started.

"What, northerner?"

"Didn't the old woman say north?"

"Yes, she did"

"Then why are we going west?" Elini grinned with superiority.

"I know a better shortcut" She said, smiling at them.

Rhen dropped her sword on the ground and fell on her knees, breathing heavily. Lars threw Elini a death glare while the southern woman shrugged her shoulders innocently. The slayn huge six-winged insect was laying a few meters away from the three, witnessing the argue between Lars and Elini. Rhen sighed, stood up and grabbed her sword, and cleared her throat, making them stop from their fight.

"You know a better shortcut, right, Elini?" Lars asked, sarcastically as Elini eyed him a bored glare. A gust of wind suddenly hit their faces, forcing them to close their eyes. As the wind stopped, Lars let out a small yelp and back off a few steps. He looked at the abyss he was just about to fall in and a shiver flew trough him. Finding themselves high on a mountain all of a sudden made both Rhen and Lars threw numerous death glares at Elini.

"I don't understand, the way changed from the last time I came here!" Elini said, looking confused at the places surrounding them. "The last time, there was no 'Mount Orion' ." Elini added.

"So you say this mountain grew here in a couple of days?" Lars asked in a serious tone, looking at the high mountain.

"Possible, but it could not have grown all by itself" Rhen responded for Elini. "We should keep going." She added, looking at the snaky path that climbed the mountain.

The snaky path seemed endless and the clouds started gathering above Mount Orion. Afraid that it might start raining, they rushed up to at least get to a cave. Rhen happily announced that she spotted a cave entrance at the end of the snaky path. The clouds started getting rid of their weight as the cold, big drops started falling mercilessly on the rock path, not only making the three soaking wet, but also making the narrow path slippery and dangerous.

Elini concentrated on the signpost at the entrance of the cave. She eventually asked Lars to read her every letter that was written on the old plank as she couldn't understand the eastern symbols. Lars read the letters confused, composing a word that he declared not being an existing word. Elini though the word over and over again, not finding any definition for it.

"We should not enter the cave, northerners" She announced, concerned. "I am afraid that it may be some kind of beast in this cave." Elini said as a lightning came across the sky, followed by a earthquaking thunder. Elini looked at the soaking kids.

"I'm freezing" Lars mumbled, shivering. Elini sighed concerned and allowed themselves to enter the cave, defeated.

The inside of the cave was warm and dry. Rhen and Lars sat on the rock ground and sighed pleased. The cave wasn't big deal, but compared to what was outside, it seemed like a piece of paradise. Rhen and Lars tried drying their clothes relaxed, but Elini was nothing but nervous. Looking around the cave and listening carefully, she eventually noticed that there was no apparent threat, along with Rhen's convincing.

"Relax, there is nothing in the cave, what could possibly happen?" Rhen said as Elini sat on a rock. An unearthly sound suddenly came from the depths of the cave, making everyone silence and tense up. The sound was approaching them accompanied by bare feet steps. Everyone sat up, awaiting for the creature to come. A bald, three meters high creature with small eyes, big round body and with a wooden huge bat in one of the chunky hands came, dragging its short feet, letting out unearthly, nasal screams due to the noseless face. A powerful, earthquaking blow landed right between the three, missing them incredibly blindly.

"Run" Elini said on a casual tone as they all left the cave running. The ogre ran at the entrance of the cave and stopped, apparently not wanting to pick a fight with them anymore.

"Kras'n polekzishi rgnasken!" The creature said, amazingly clear. They stopped running and looked back at the creature entering the cave. Observing that it doesn't want to fight, they all relaxed, sighing in relief.

"Huh?" Lars asked, confused at the sounds made by the ogre, looking at the girls.

"I'll make a guess and say that that means 'And stay out'" Rhen said, matter-of-factly, looking at Lars.

.......................................................................

Real: Oh, noes! My chapters started being omglong again. (TT_TT)

Evil: yeaaah! Your hands must be suffering already D

Real: not really

Good:.. * stares at real *

Real: What??

Good: … *stares *

Real: WHAT?? (O_O)

Good: Nothing... .* stares * (^u^)


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

The rain started pouring slower and with smaller drops while they already managed to descend Mount Orion. The muddy earth was hardly walkable and they were moving very slow being careful not to slip on the mud and fall. Rhen sighed loudly, disappointed. She was supposed to find five druids, but everything was going wrong. They have been spending a lot of time searching for the druids and they weren't able to find at least one. She even dragged two people with her in this quest, making them go trough what she was supposed to go trough alone. She wanted to apologize to Elini and Lars for making them come with her.

"Hey, look over there!" Lars said, pointing towards a white dome. "It's a temple! It's one of the temples!" Lars said joyfully as Rhen's mouth widened in a smile.

"It was about time" Elini said, smiling content. Rhen looked at her two companions. They really were into finding the druids with her. And they didn't seem to want to be leaving her party any soon.

Lars looked with awe at the huge construction. The temple was made completely out of marble and the sculpted columns were so detailed it was breathtaking. At the entrance was a large feline that was apparently sleeping. At a closer examination, they observed that the large feline was a light blue furred male lion. The lion's ears suddenly moved in a few directions as his gray eyes popped open, spotting the three. The lion didn't seem to want to attack them as he stood up and a cloud of dust surrounded him accompanied a poof, changing the animal's form. A young man stood in the place the lion used to be, smiling relieved.

"You finally came" The boy said, sighing. Rhen looked at him blankly for a few seconds before realizing who the boy was.

"You are one of the guardians!" She exclaimed as the boy grinned with a eager 'yup' and made them a sign to come. Rhen climbed the stairs eagerly, not waiting for the others. Not seeing what the guardian did to the door, she only noticed the door open slowly as the boy stepped next to it, making a sign for Rhen to enter, telling her that 'Vohu Manah was inside the temple'. The inside of the temple was even more breathtaking as lots of musical instruments were placed on high marble pedestals. Flowing plants were also placed around the room. The snow white floor was guiding Rhen to another room, where an enchanting melody was heard from. Rhen entered the room and stopped abruptly, not wanting to disturb the one that was playing a violin.

Lars and Elini came from behind her and slightly made her flinch as she totally forgot that they entered the temple too. They all waited for the light green haired druid to finish the wonderful song. The rhythm was so soft and supernatural, it almost hypnotized the listeners and made them stop from any activity and listen to the rest of the song. But the music stopped abruptly as the druid turned suddenly, with a scared face.

Vohu Manah's expression suddenly relaxed and his mouth curled into a smile as his green eyes shined happily.

"I thought you'd never come" The druid said, happily as he placed the violin on one empty pedestal and left for the exit of the temple with one simple "Shall we go?". Vohu Manah was a perky, full of life druid that gave a good impression to Rhen about the druids. His mouth would go on and on about many various subjects, seemingly that he could speak forever without having to stop. The happy aura he was emanating was making them all, in an odd enough way, to feel better in any situation.

"Was your journey hard?" Vohu Manah asked as soon as they found themselves out of the temple.

"You can say it that way, druid" Elini said, flashbacking to the mazy way they had to roam until getting to their first druid, literally and non-literally speaking.

"Yeah, there were these wind gusts that made our way trough Mount Orion harder than it actually was" Lars said, rolling is eyes at the playful weather that they met on the mountain. The druid made a straight face and looked at his guardian with a bitter, yet calm expression. They changed a couple of short whispers that none of the others could understand because of the low volume before the guardian just rolled his eyes in a sign that showed that he was totally against what the druid told him to do.

"David!" Vohu Manah said determinedly.

"Alright, alright" the blue-haired boy named David said, defeated, turning at the three with a sigh. "About the winds... It was my fault. I was bored and some of them escaped" He said, apologizing. Rhen rushed to tell him that everything was okay while Elini just let out a sigh and a nod mumbling something about 'the kids nowadays'. Lars just looked at the boy blankly for a couple of seconds.

"You call that 'some of them'?" He asked as David looked at him groaning and rolling his eyes. "We were almost taken up by those winds. The wind was blowing non-stop." Lars said, annoyed. He let out a long sigh before mumbling as soft as possible that it's fine and he doesn't have a reason to worry.

"Thanks" David said, sighing himself. Not wanting to get himself in any more fights, Lars didn't bother to ask David how he could control the air or why he could hear so well. Another thing that made Lars give up was the fact that this David seemed to be quite easily annoyed, thing that leaded to further fights.

Rhen walked confident along the paths trough the WildWoods, now being proud that she knew the way around the places. After so many days spent on wandering the WildWoods, she already learned where the paths were leading to and where they should go. But she started to lose her confidence when David and Vohu Manah took a different path from the ones she already knew. Halloween hills didn't seem a very appealing name, even though Vohu Manah was speaking lightly about it as being an unearthly, fantastic place.

Vohu Manah stopped before a cave which had its entrance blocked by metal bars. Lars and Rhen looked at the entrance puzzled, not knowing what they should do next. Elini looked confused at the standing druid, frowning at the fact that he didn't move an inch. Only when Vohu Manah asked David kindly if he needed help they noticed the guardian kneeling on the ground, fumbling for something in a bag that they never seen before. Announcing relieved that he found "it", David handed Vohu Manah an ornamented gray-ish key that was to be turned around in a keyhole hidden behind some ivied wall next to the entrance. The bars were lifted up and the entrance of the cave was clear.

The cave was dark and dusted. Not being able to see anything in front of them, they were counting blindly on the fact that the path along the cave was straight. However, as this concept was wrong, one of them had to suffer a bump into a wall several times, letting the others know, matter-of-factly, that they should not go that way. After many distressful heads had to suffer hits in the rock walls, they finally managed to see a dim light at the other end of the cave.

"Ahh, the Halloween hills haven't changed at all..." Vohu Manah said, thoughtfully as the others looked around the odd place, curiously. The unnatural colors and shapes of the plants were contrasting the unusual earth and sky color. The dirty white color of the trees was contrasting the black seven-cornered star shaped leaves. The dark purple sky was filled with shining white stars, but the moon was missing. Stepping on the dry navy blue ground, Rhen tensed up at the quietness of the places. Not one single sound could be heard excepting for the multiple footsteps that made the air even more hard breathable.

A sudden squeaky sound deafed Rhen's concentrated mind, followed by a set of flapping wings. The flying mammal approached them with threatening sounds flapping its wings hurriedly towards Vohu Manah. Before the druid could finish his shocked hiss, Rhen take out her sword, and the bat attack Vohu Manah, a light blue entity flashed before their eyes as the extra large bat was taken between many sets of sharp fangs before being shaken furiously. The dead mammal dropped dead on the ground as David threw a questioning look at the others after turning back human.

"That's why we're called guardians. We must guard our druids with the price of our lives." David explained in a serious tone after Vohu Manah finished shooting him with lots of 'you didn't have to's and 'that was unnecessary's.

"The price of your lives?" Lars asked unsure. "Isn't that a pretty good reason to be scared?" David threw him a straight face.

"It is. And it was also ten years ago when we started." David said with a tint of sadness in his voice. "But there's nothing we could do" He added, preventing Lars from asking any further questions.

Elini looked with a bitter yet confused expression at the signpost that indicated where they were currently located. The bold, messy-graved letters were mostly covered by mold and moss, fact that kept David and Lars stuck for a few seconds, trying to decipher the Eastern letters. After many arguments over stuff like 'that's a T, not a M', they both agreed and concluded that the word said "WitchWood". The name of the village made everyone reluctant about entering it as several seconds passed since Lars spoke out the word and no one said nor did anything.

"Well," Rhen started, making a few steps and stopping before the fragile-looking bridge that connected one bank to another, looking at it hesitantly. "we should go already, right?" She continued, turning back to the others as she could hear Lars sigh slowly. Rhen looked at the bridge once again before making up courage and taking one long step, not wanting to stick around the easy breakable-looking bridge for too long. With three more steps, she reached the opposite river bank, turning to the others and smiling assuringly.

Lars was the last one to step on the bridge and stopped after two steps, looking at the flowing green liquid that could be everything but not water in disgust before letting out a loud 'eww'. Jumping to the other side, a frisson ran trough him thinking at the consequences of the breaking of the bridge while he was on it. The swampy village of WitchWood was filled with toads, mosquitoes and, lastly, rats that seemed that just suffered painful lab experiments, feeling which was given by the green-ish pigment of their fur. The sound of the dense green sludge that was flowing, substituting a river, was grossing Lars out as he just tried to ignore the sound, not to mention he did not look at the disgusting liquid.

After a while of walking, small, broken fences were appearing before tottering houses made of rotten wood and with dirty yellow straw roofs could be seen in the distance. Ugly female persons with large hats on their heads started making their way across, not even looking at the newly-arrived guests. After wandering around the village and noticing that there was no inn to sleep at, Rhen just considered finding another place to sleep. The witches didn't seem to mind their intrusion in the town so they might as well take them in. Knowing that everybody would pay as much as needed for a rest, not caring how bad it was, Rhen aimed for the most tolerable-looking house.

"_Who's there?"_ A cranky voice said from behind the door.

"We are travelers from far away, would you mind..." Rhen started but she was interrupted by the sound of the unlocking door. A brown curled-haired woman with a hideous face made her appearance trough the half-opened door. She let out a loud, high-pitched scream right after opening the door.

"What are you?" She stammered shakily. Everybody looked at her weirdly, ready to get away from the crazy witch.

"Uhm, travelers, like we said before?" Lars said, ironically with a confused look on his face. The witch didn't react for a couple of seconds before starting laughing with her cackly acute voice while muttering 'silly me' between laughs. After she finished her 'happy moment', she let them go in, examining each as they passed trough the door, interested.

"My bad, sweeties." She started as everybody sat at something that she called a table. "Not many people of your kind have been for a long time in WitchWood. I forgot how normal people looked." She said, looking down, avoiding to look at any of them. As she looked up, her expression changed as she let out a disgusted sound. "But such things... Ugh!" She said, looking attentively at Rhen.

"What?" Rhen asked, frowning at the staring witch.

"How can you bare so much beauty, sweetie?" She asked as Rhen looked even more confused at her.

"I don't know..."

"Does it burn?" The witch asked interested. "Can you look into the mirror without fainting? Is your skin as soft as it seems? Let me touch!" The witch said, standing up hurriedly and reaching for Rhen's cheek. Rhen leaned back, scared, widening her eyes at the ridgy hand approaching her face. Suddenly, another hand grabbed the witch's wrist and made it stop as Rhen fell on her back on the dirty couch from so much leaning. Both the witch and Rhen looked at the owner of the hand curiously as he started speaking.

"Maybe we should go to bed, we had a long journey." Lars said, giving the witch a straight face before letting go of her wrist. "Can you lead us to our room miss... uhh"

"Gretchen." The witch said simply. "And of course I can, sweeties" She said, not changing her shocked expression.

Rhen looked around the room, associating the beds with the one she slept on back when she was a slave in Ghalarah. The witch waited with the candle in her hand for everyone to choose a bed from the many ones that were found in the room. David looked weirdly at the witch, but yet, his expression soon changed, remembering all the things that were weird about this witch.

"Why do you have so many beds?" He asked, wanting to know the answer, though, aware that he might regret asking.

"I sometimes get bored of my bed so I just randomly pick one from this room. I haven't slept on most of them" She answered simply as David turned his gaze into the opposite wall and shook his head, regretting for his curiosity. Everybody was now praying hopefully that they picked a bed she didn't sleep on. Fortunately, she left soon after and everybody sighed in relief just before they fell asleep because of the exhaustion.

Rhen rolled in the bed so her back was facing up and called for Lars. Lars rolled in the same position Rhen did and looked at her trough the grate at the edge of both of their beds and looked at her trough the dim light with sleepy eyes.

"What?" He asked, obviously sounding like he just fell asleep a couple of seconds ago. Rhen smiled slightly at his puffy voice.

"Thanks for earlier" She said , waiting for him to react. She could barely tell, because of the very dim light, but she could have sworn that he smiled just a little bit.

"You're welcome, but it was nothing" He said, sinking his face into the pillow. Rhen smiled once again. She knew it was nothing, but for some strange reason, she just felt like thanking him. Rhen rolled around and looked at the ceiling until the sleep struck her and she had no choice but to fell into its trap.

"You what?" Rhen asked, wide-eyed, looking at the convinced druid. "You cannot. It's dangerous"

"How much could it take to go to Ghed'ahre and back?" Vohu Manah said simply. "And besides, we've been a burden for you. And I have David with me" He added. Rhen frowned, thinking over the druid's demand of staying in WitchWood while they go to Ghed'ahre and retrieve the other druid that found himself on the Eastern Empire. At the druid's demands and Lars' arguments that 'it would be easier that way', Rhen eventually gave up and decided to leave the druid of music in WitchWood.

…..................................................

Good: * continues staring at real *

Real: (-_-)* * kicks good's ass out of the room *

Evil:... you did not do that... (O_o)

Real: yes I did, wanna see me again?? * kicks evil's ass out of the room too *

Real: aaahh! Finally... silence.... (~_~)


	20. Chapter 20

**IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE: **You may have already noticed that I pointed out a few times that only Lars/David can read the symbols from the Eastern empire. Well, that's because I made every Empire have its own letters. I made the Northern Empire have Cyrillic-like letters, The Eastern Empire Asian-like letters, the Southern Empire Arabic-like letters and the Western Empire normal letters. (added this note only to make sure there's no confusion out there)

**Chapter 20**

Rhen fell on her knees before stopping herself from the complete fall by putting her hands on the ground. The pale greenish-blue sword that she found recently was laying somewhere near her, recovering from the fall it just suffered after Rhen dropped it. Panting exhaustedly, Rhen tried to catch her breath before trying to stand on her feet and failing. All of her energy has been drained out as she gave up on being stubborn and sat on the ground, waiting for heartbeat to go slower.

"It seemed easier when the other northerner did it." Elini said, sitting as well and catching her breath.

"Yeah, but when David killed the bat, it was only one bat, not like all of them gathered" Rhen said between pants frowning at the fight they just escaped from.

"And there weren't those stupid slimey-gelly things that receive only magical damage" Lars said, breathing heavily as he lied down, one arm above his eyes. He just gritted his teeth and sighed disappointed at the way they faced a tougher fight than the ones they were already used to. Their state was awful and the way they were still alive seemed a miracle to everyone.

Elini frowned and stood up suddenly, commanding everyone to do so. Lars and Rhen looked at her weirdly before reaching her point and standing up themselves with a slight difficulty. The way trough the monochrome forest seemed a burden to Rhen because of her already gained fatigue. But the thought that they started whining after a hard-won victory was terrifying her and kept her going. Eventually, she forgot about the exhaustion and had the chance to get happy when she spotted a signpost next to a break trough the trees. At Lars's confirm that the signpost really said "Ghed'ahre" they all found their way happily past the break trough the trees.

The town was nothing like WitchWood. There were neat houses with people walking around neatly. But at a closer examination, their appearance didn't seem as neat as at first. The pale skin was contrasting the blood red eyes and their sharp fangs stood out when they were talking or laughing.

A sudden unearthly hiss made Rhen flinch and pull out her sword in an instant. The vampire stopped at the sight of the sword that was placed between his and Rhen's neck.

"Foolish human!" The vampire started with a chuckle. "Vampires don't die. I am already dead" He said laughing.

"I would like to see you biting me after your head has been detached from the rest of your body" Rhen said threatening as the vampire stopped laughing. With a growl and a mumble, the vampire backed away, continuing his previous way. Rhen threw glares at the other vampires nearby that continued their activities as well, leaving them be.

Lars sighed in relief as the vampires didn't try to oppose resistance and let them wander around their town without making them any problems. Many of them even talked to them nicely and offered them best information they knew. Elini wondered if the behavior was caused by fear or they were simply happy someone visited their hidden little town after so many years.

"I like to call it respect" Lars said, relaxed yet smug, responding Elini's question receiving eye rolls and sighs.

"Holy crap, Jimmy! Those two don't have swords!" A male vampire voice said a few seconds after Lars finished his sentence. "Dinner!" The vampire yelled again as they all turned around to see the crazy undead creature running happily towards Lars and Elini. But just as he passed Lars, the vampire stopped for a fraction of a second before starting yelling like crazy and running around like he was on fire. "Garlic! Take it off me! Take it off! It burns!" the vampire yelled, seeming to try reaching something that has been slided down the back of his shirt.

Rhen and Elini threw a questioning look at Lars who was grinning triumphantly and watching the vampire as he continued running around. The vampire suddenly stopped and watched the garlic piece slip out from under his jacket as shivers ran trough him.

"Noting compares to a good Eastern garlic" Lars said, triumphantly as the vampire was recovering from the shock suffered.

"Why do you have garlic with you, northerner?" Elini asked as both her and Rhen flashbacked at the dog that resided at Land's End. Lars just shrugged his shoulders again before looking at the kneeling and apologizing vampire. Concluding that that what they encountered earlier could be categorized as one 'unique' vampire, they all shook it off and continued their way to the local church.

Lars remained dumbstruck looking at the immensity of the organ that found itself inside the church. The thick tubes were made completely out of gold and the height of the organ was intimidating. The greatness of the church was breathtaking as everybody stopped walking and continued staring at the nicely-painted ceilings with awe for a good couple of minutes before coming back to reality and looking around with frustration.

There was no temple anywhere. And come to think that all the vampires in the town told them that they'll find the dark temple inside the church... Will-powered, Rhen continued to search for any hidden door that could lead to their objective. But there was none and the time was passing without them making any progress in their search trough the large church.

"How can they lie to us like that?" Rhen asked clenching her fists frustrated. Lars didn't bother to answer her question as they all knew he would start cursing out loud once again. He just went to another wall of the church leaning on it and sighing in disappointment.

"They are undead creatures, northerner. Maybe they were not knowing what they were thinking when they said that" Elini said, sitting on one of the chairs that found themselves around the church's wall area.

"Yeah, but they all said the same thing..." Rhen said unsure. "This might be a conspiracy" She added, sounding more paranoid than she wanted to sound and than she used to be.

Lars just let out a loud yawn, avoiding any critic comments before letting his arm drop on one of the oddly-positioned candle holders that happened only to be screwed into the walls low enough to make a person suspicious after comparing their position to the high church. Seeing that the candle holder made a weird creaky sound when he lied his elbow on it, he just shrugged his shoulders ignorantly and let the poor object support his body weight. To his surprise, the candle holder leaned instead of breaking and he found himself sprawled on the ground.

Elini and Rhen turned their heads slightly interested towards the thud. Their both inert, bored expressions transformed, rushing to over where Lars fell. They stopped before the secret, now revealed entrance happily looking at the darkened corridor. Lars stood up and took a look at the descending stairs as well before a sound came from the entrance to the church and everyone turned their heads in sync. A vampress with blood red hair and matching eyes entered the church, closing the door behind her and shuffling things in a bag she brought with her.

"Priest, I brought you some... " The vampress said, walking towards the altar and looking up. Seeing the three humans, she stopped every of her activities and widened her mouth in shock. She dropped the bag she was holding and started to slowly turn around but stopped abruptly and smirked to herself.

"You are not going to report us, will you?" Lars asked after the presentations have been made.

"I will not if you do me a favor" Tei'jal said, grinning in such a manner that made everyone feel uncomfortable. "Take me with you to the uplands and your secret will remain a secret". They looked at eachother unsure, exchanging messages trough looks. Lars nodded at Rhen as well as Elini.

"We accept, but you must promise you won't bite any of us" Rhen said as Tei'jal nodded happily.

The way down the narrow corridor was slippery and hard walkable. The way they were advancing down the stairs annoyed everyone, but as they descended more and more, they started getting terrified at the thoughts they previously had about rushing things a bit and running down the stairs. Torches were hanging here and there and they were positioned with a distance between them that assured the walkers that they won't be left in total darkness. The staircase wasn't ending and they seemed to be even more narrow and slippery as they descended.

Lars was descending the stairs with a bored face, wondering when they will finally arrive to the druid. Thinking at how deep in the earth this druid was, he concluded, terrified how much of a pain it will be when they will have to ascend the stairs back. But his thought had time to fly away as he heard Rhen's content hiss. He immediately looked up and saw the staircase ending at a darkened room.

Not quite wanting to adventure in a dark room that didn't seem to be uninhabited, Rhen remained at the end of the staircase and looked around, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. Unfortunately, the room was way to dark to distinguish the shapes and Rhen had to advance with a sigh. The only source of light that could still be seen was the last torch from the staircase, which was also very dim because of the distance. A sudden sound made Rhen widen her eyes involuntarily and look towards where it came from.

"You came!" A female voice spoke. "You arrived at last!" The voice added, hopefully. Everyone remained with their guard up, not sure what was going to happen next. Before realizing who was the one speaking, Rhen hesitated to respond or react in any way. But as she realized too late who was approaching them, she slapped her forehead, annoyed at the fact that she did this for the second time already.

Not realizing what Rhen was doing or why she was doing it, Lars decided to do what he usually did, to press the matter, leaving Elini and Tei'jal look confused at what was happening around them.

"So, who are you again?" Lars asked, waiting patiently for a response from the girl.

"One of the guardians" Two female voices instead of one said in unison, making Lars frown at the fact that one of the female voices was familiar to him and, what a coincidence, very similar to Rhen's. Why did Rhen know something that he didn't, without even speaking to the newly-encountered guardian? Lars frowned deeper, paranoid thoughts flying trough his mind. Maybe it was just pure intuition that told Rhen. Anyhow, the fact that she wanted to guess for the first time who was the guardian and who was not let Lars frustrated because of not being able to find a reason for why she wanted it. So he eventually gave up.

"Trough here..." the guardian almost whispered after a sound like a opening door came from the darkness. Rhen started stepping towards where the sound came from just before Lars wanted to follow her. Elini's hand holding his arm stopped him as he turned around to face the southern woman, annoyed.

"We shall better wait here, northerner." Elini said, letting go of Lars as he noticed that Tei'jal didn't follow Rhen either.

"Why?" He asked, confused before a thud sound accompanied by Rhen's voice mumbling came from where they supposed the entrance to the temple was, as Tei'jal sighed and as the female guardian gave her accurate indications of where the entrance was exactly located. Milimetrically speaking. Lars understood Elini's point, but also felt bad for Rhen's sorry head.

Rashnu was a quiet druid that never wanted to speak too much, unless it was necessary. He seemed like the total opposite of Vohu Manah. His hair had the same tint as his cloak, both being the same shade of black. His red eyes were the only that stood out of his imposing appearance. Not seeming to want to chat after everyone's various attempts, they gave up and left him be, deciding to leave the darkened temple.

Finally coming across light again, Lars could finally see the female guardian's appearance, not like he did with Rashnu, in the fraction of a second in which he lighted a candle nearby before his hand could be slapped and drop the candle. Her hair lenght was reaching the half of her neck and had a weird shade of dark blue, contrasting her aqua light blue eyes. Her personality was rather interesting. She was changing her moods like clothes, but with every mood she was showing, her paranoia, which seemed to be her biggest flaw, seemed the most obvious.

As they left Ghed'ahre and adventured out in the Halloween hills again, Rashnu let out multiple annoyed puffs, keeping an eye out around. To their dismay, there were still bats around there, only that most of them were leaving them be. Hearing the same squeaky sound and flapping wings, Tei'jal was prepared to tear the bat that was charging towards her into pieces. But the bat changed its route in the last second as the druid of darkness was bound to bend over to avoid the bat.

"Kia?" Rashnu asked as his guardian just changed its shape and watched the boomeranging bat.

"Yes, Rashnu?" The now dark blue fox asked, waiting for a command.

"This bat is bothering me..." Before Rashnu could finish and Lars finish chanting the spell, the bat suffered the same fate like the one killed by David, leaving Lars burn the empty slot the bat was supposed to be in and some more of the monochromatic trees that happened to be on the line. He widened his mouth and stared at the carbonized trees in frustrated before glaring at the girl named Kia that turned back human when he wasn't looking.

The rest of the way was quiet. Specially because Rashnu didn't _want_ to talk. That made the way back to WitchWood boring. Very boring.

Rhen had the chance to sigh in relief seeing that Vohu Manah was safe as they left him. But the quietness of the way back to WitchWood was to be compensated as soon as the two guardians met eachother and started their type of discussions.

"You're late..." David mumbled, annoyed as Rhen and Vohu Manah were speaking.

"It wasn't my fault" Kia responded bitterly.

"I bet it was on the way back"

"Glad you weren't there to help" Elini frowned and stopped their little argue before the indirect insults could lead further, saying that they don't have time for that before mumbling something about kids. Kia just threw David a triumphant grin saying that she's already past eighteen before Rashnu glared at her, preventing her from saying anything and making sure their departure from WitchWood was coming faster.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Omake

Rashnu: Kia! You are the oldest guardian and the only guardian considered as an adult

Kia: Yes!

Rashnu: Make me proud that you are my guardian and don't do stupid things like fights and useless killings.

Kia: Yes!

Vohu Manah (coming out of the blue): Rashnuuuuuu~ My dear druid brother (^_^)

Rashnu:....

Kia:....

Rashnu: Kill him (-_-)*.... Now!

…...........................................................

Real: that omake was fun to make~ (^_^)...

Evil: hyi-aaaaaaaaah! *jumps out of nowhere, attempting to kick Real in the face with the foot *

Real: *moves out of the way *

Evil: (O_O) I didn't see that coming... * goes trough window in her flight *


	21. Chapter 21

**Author's note:** I just had to say this but making a pirate speak is so much fun (^_^) Btw translations for what pirates are saying are at the end of the chapter. ^^

**Chapter 21**

Lars decided to ignore the party members' weird behavior as much as possible, for his own good. He had to face lots of this weird behaviors as soon as they left Halloween Hills. Ignoring the fact that Kia and David were fighting over stupid things like "you stepped on my foot" or "that's not the right way, you idiot" and that Vohu Manah was exasperating Rashnu with his happiness and talkative personality, Te'ijal poured a bottle of something over her face after they left the pass to the Halloween Hills. Lars looked weirdly at her as she was closing the yellow bottle and placing it in her backpack.

"What?" Tei'jal asked, curious as Lars was staring at her in terrified.

He just looked away from the crazy vampire woman and continued his way, pretending that he didn't see anything that caused him mental traumas for the rest of his life. The key word being _pretending_.

Eventually finding a way out of the mazy forest of WildWoods, Lars was amazed at seeing the sea again and, mostly, confused at the rapidity in which the water guardian found the way to it. He rolled his eyes at the two guardians as they started fighting yet again over the simple problem named "now what, miss 'patience'". He just walked between them, stopping them from their fight and pointing toward an approaching ship.

"Aind whey would weh teik yew, yew wetlaeind scum weith ush?" One pirate asked after a discussion with Kia. Discussion that left everyone look at the pirate confused, not getting anything from what he said.

"Ey, Marcus" Another pirate yelled from the deck "Stop washting taeim weith wetlaeinders aind moive yer assh ovah heire! Andre hash goet ei heaidache agaien" He yelled as the pirate grinned at them.

"Dhis esh yer lacky dey, wetlaeinders." He said, grinning and climbing the stairs as Kia followed him before noticing everyone remained behind.

"He said they'll take us" She said with a "duh" expression on her face.

The pirate ship was dirty and the suffocating smell of rum was lingering all over the place. The pirate named Marcus leaded them along the deck as the many other pirates were whispering, laughing, insulting and doing many more things that made everyone feel uncomfortable and unwanted. Marcus didn't seem to be wanting to take them for a free ride as he was leaning on one of the wooden walls, beside the high mast and grinning happily.

"What should I understand from this, pirate?" Elini asked, crossing her arms and scowling at Marcus. He looked at her confused before looking at Kia.

"Whaot's dhis misshy's probleim, lassh?" He asked, returning the look to Elini.

"Never mind the wetlanders, pirate. I'll keep an eye out, if that's what you want." Kia responded, calming the pirate down and straightening Elini's mistake. Marcus just smiled satisfied and nodded, leaving them be. Kia disappeared mysteriously soon after leaving everyone look confused around.

Lars sat on a staircase, sighing hopelessly and trying to find something to kill time with. Being on a boat with a lot of pirates made him feel extremely nervous. He pitied any of the others who had been dragged to do the pirates' chores. Luckily, he managed to escape easily, without being put to do anything. Sitting on some staircase which leaded to a storage room that smelled an awfully lot as rum, Lars's eyes gotten sleepier and he felt his brain go numb.

A reddish translucent liquid was moving along with the ship's movements inside the transparent glass. Lars have been watching the half-filled glass of rum for quite a while now. The drink was like calling to him. His eyes were barely holding themselves open before a fast move made Lars be less sleepier.

The empty glass lay sadly on the floor, feeling bad for its bottle companions which were as empty as he was. The poor glass could only bare Lars' mocking laugh and keep silent, as most inanimate objects do. Lars' pointless laugh ceased as eyes stared blankly at the door to the storage room moving slowly and giving signs that it wanted to open. Lars' confused mind acted involuntarily once again as he started laughing stupidly at the blurry sight that his eyes showed him.

Te'ijal looked confused at the green haired sorcerer while closing the door. Sitting on the hard wood floor and with his back leaned on one of the many barrels in the room while laughing his heart out without any particular reason, he made the vampress change her way of seeing humans even more.

Obviously noticing that his brain wasn't completely oxygenated, Te'ijal left the storage room discreetly and intended to act cheerfully like she haven't seen anything, hoping that Lars would come back to his usual self before someone finds him. But a sudden bump into a certain tanned woman right after she closed the door with an evil snicker on her face made her smile sheepishly at the Veldtonian woman.

"...And I found him here." Te'ijal finished as Elini picked up one of the empty bottles from the floor before letting it down slowly. "So what's wrong with him?" Te'ijal asked confused as Elini turned to her with an evil shine in her eyes.

"You shall not find out today about the power of the alcohol, vampress. It will overcome you and you will end crawling on the floors and killing people pointlessly" Elini said deeply as Te'ijal threw her a weird and slightly concerned look, before eying Lars. "Hmm..." Elini hummed with an evil grin on her face, eying something.

Lars opened his eyes slowly, even the low light in the room blinding him as he didn't even manage to open them halfway. His green orbs changed their angle in sync as a sudden opaque body blocked a big part of the light that landed on his face and made his sight clearer. His eyes suddenly popped open as his cheeks went on fire. It was... Rhen. Her cheek was in front of his mouth. Was she checking if he was breathing?

A pair of purple eyes suddenly made their appearance in front of his just for a fraction of a second. Second in which he could catch a clear glimpse of the concern in Rhen's eyes. She let out a long, relieved sigh as she eyed the other two female characters in the room. Lars sat up, slowly, bewildered by what was happening. Only then he noticed that he was soaking wet and remembered what actually happened.

_Were Elini and Te'ijal trying to wake him up from his drunk dizziness? Lars could not tell, but all he knew was that his head was forced to stay underwater. The water from a barrel... What Elini and Te'ijal didn't know was that he regained consciousness a while ago and now he was struggling desperately to breathe. But as the Gods heard his prayers, the barrel collapsed, leaving him sprawled, soaking wet in the middle of the room. _

"I-it's not what you think...." Elini said, smiling sheepishly at Rhen's glare.

"Ey, yew wetlaeinders! Weh arrived on Venaiara Isles. Stop washting ourh taeim aind get off ourh sheep now!" The pirate named Marcus yelled, annoyed, before Rhen could say anything.

The cart was moving fast, rocking clumsily at the slightest sudden movement the horses made. It was no ordinary cart. It was larger and taller than any other cart and the fact that it had a roof and was made completely out of wood, not to mention the lack of light inside it made everyone feel like they were on their way to the prison. The monotone face and the patched, old dusty clothes everyone else in the cart was wearing was making things even more morbid.

Everyone was silent. Too silent. Only the creepy sound of squeaking rotten wood was heard. However, it was better that way than the absolute silence.

Lars eyed the water guardian. She was calm and patient, the conditions of locomotions obviously not bothering her.

"Where are we going?" he suddenly asked her in a whisper, not wanting to change the tradition of the places. She suddenly turned her gaze at him, somehow startled. She was indeed one weird person. Her light blue aqua eyes were almost glowing in the low light as Lars felt somehow uncomfortable sitting next to such a creepy person. Although he didn't blame her. Maybe that's the consequences of living for many years with a druid like Rashnu in that dark underground place.

"We are going to the furthest one of the Veniara Isles. As I remember, that is the only of the three isles that have routes to the Northern Empire" She explained casually but still in a whisper.

Lars couldn't say he was satisfied with the response, but he wasn't disappointed either. The only thing that was upsetting him was that they had been in this old, cranky cart for more than an hour and no one made any signs which told him that they are almost there. He suddenly woke up from his thoughts as two older men started talking on the second compartment of the cart.

"Hey, is this lad alright?" One of them asked.

"I have no idea; he's been sleeping since we left"

"He looks like he's from the Southern Isle"

"Pfffft! What could a Veldtonian possibly do here?"

"Ehh, I understand what you mean, but look at his clothes"

"Humph! I don't care why he's here, but hell! He's wasting too much amount of space!" The old man said, annoyed.

The horses were heard outside of the cart neighing agitated as a sudden turn of the cart made all the people sitting on the right half gasp in surprise as a small part of them didn't manage to stay in place. A thud sound accompanied by a loud pain groan came from where the two old men's voices were heard. Their mocking laugh was soon heard after, making fun of the recently fallen person.

"Serves you right, Veldtonian" one of them said between laughs. Elini frowned at the old man's remark, but before she could even stand up, another thud sound came from the second compartment of the cart as the same old man whimpered.

"Holy crap!" He cursed as a young man's voice started laughing revengeful at the old man's pain.

Lars was listening, amused by the events.

"What, for the high saint herring's sake, are you carrying in this bag, you insolent youngster!" The old man yelled, his anger bursting out along with his voice.

"Don't yell at me, old man!" The adolescent yelled back. "You just take care of your sorry old back!" He added on the same tone, as footsteps were heard heading towards the first compartment of the cart. The boy, which wasn't older than Lars looked around the room, for an empty place. His eyes landed on the group of eight people as his expression changed abruptly.

"You?!" Four voices asked simultaneously as the red haired southerner had nothing left to say as the neighing of the horses was heard once again and the cart lost speed abruptly, making the poor fire guardian fall once again.

"What are you doing here?" Kia asked bitterly, throwing death glares at the yawning red haired guardian while they all walked out of the cart.

"Sleeping on duty, fire boy?" David asked with a mocking tone in his voice. "The Oracle won't be pleased to hear of this, neither Eithera"

"It's not funny" Rajah said with a most serious tone, cutting David short. "Eithera needs no more guarding" He said in a grave tone as the other two druids flinched slightly and turned around, eying their druid sister's guardian.

"What do you mean?" Rashnu asked in a grave, yet concerned tone. Rhen looked away, constantly blaming herself.

"Eithera has gone missing" Rajah blurted out with a expressionless face as the two druids looked at him like high voltage just ran trough them.

"What, you didn't know?" Rajah asked, puzzled.

...................................................................

**Translations for what the pirates were saying:**

-1- "And why would we take you, you wetland scum with us?"

-2- "Hey, Marcus"... "Stop wasting time with wetlanders and move your ass over here! Andre has got a headache again"

-3- "This is your lucky day, wetlanders"

-4- "What's this missy's problem, lass?"

-5- "Hey, you wetlanders! We arrived on Veniara Isles. Stop wasting our time and get off our ship now!"

Evil: how original... you created the language of a new civilization.... that lives on MARS! Oh and btw, you created (YET AGAIN) a very strangulated ending -_-

Real: …. I bet you wouldn't have a better idea

Evil: uhh, yes I would (I'm you, remember?) but I would think it's stupid and I would move to Dubai ^^

Good: ooooh, I would come with you too ^^

Evil: to neutralize my evil powers? No, thanks.

Real: hmmmm * evil shiny eyes * * looks at evil *


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

The wooden cranky door slammed shut in sorrow as Elini left the poor door ache in misery while looking at the southern woman's back distancing on the cold deck. Elini sighed from under the patchy numerous coats she was covered with and just felt even more pissed at the fact that she could see her breath ascending to the sky. She clenched her teeth mentally while analyzing the red haired vampire's actions.

Te'ijal refused to wear any of the "uplandish animal skin coats", announcing casually that she didn't need any of the human inventions for keeping her temperature above the lowest limit. It was obvious; her bloodless veins were, well, bloodless and so, she didn't have a reason to warm herself up. As she smiled, waving cheerfully at the tanned white haired woman, she received one scary death glare as the Veldtonian lady was scowling at her, apparently without any reason.

Elini wanted to throw Te'ijal in the sea for smiling at her in such a manner. She surely seen her in pain and did it on purpose. Right, lengthen the pain and deepen the sorrow. Too bad that the hatred-willed Elini didn't know about Te'ijal's peaceful intentions.

Feeling pushed out of the way from behind, she turned around abruptly with the intent of starting a world war against the person who dared to push her, but was only able to find a apologizing Rhen that had been, without doubt, robbed by the wind which stole her balance for a few seconds.

Sighing relieved that she just escaped the southern woman's rage, Rhen made her way further on the deck, wrapping her coat around her tighter as the cold wind was hitting her face. Sitting on one of the freezing benches, the numerous thoughts started shuffling inside her mind, as the way she saw their progress in this journey was worst of all. Being scared that other druids may go missing while she keeps an eye on the others, Rhen didn't see the point in the Oracle's plan and totally forgot the role of the guardians.

People were disappearing mysteriously as Rajah gone missing after they embarked on the ship. To be honest, Rhen couldn't swear she saw the fire guardian even embarking on the ship, but he went missing and that was that. Some more of the sailors on the ship went missing after almost half of the journey as the captain declared. The journey was getting dreadfully dangerous and it was obvious only after some sort of immense mass of water rose from the sea without having any magic possessor play with his/her powers. However, the mass of water returned to obeying the laws of gravity and left everyone unharmed.

Someone sneezing next to her made her flinch. She turned her head to her left suddenly, as the numerous shades of red on her cheeks being visible under her lavender locks.

"Lars..." She started as the mentioned sorcerer just sniffed, not turning his head to her. "I didn't see you sitting here." That sounded pathetic. She cursed herself for making such a stupid affirmation.

"Yeah, it seems this cold of mine made me invisible. Elini almost sat on me earlier" He said in a nasal tone. Rhen clenched her eyes and teeth closed at Lars' response, aware that only she was responsible for what he said. "But yet..." he said, making her turn at him. He forced a smile at her as his lips started moving, but she could hear nothing coming out. Swearing to herself that she could see a trace of embarrassment on his face when she realized that the fast blowing wind was responsible for her temporary deafing.

Not caring that the wind started blowing terrifyingly fast, Rhen only wished to know what Lars previously said. Although she should have worried about the wind...

A series of blindingly sudden events followed and ceased as fast as they started...

"Let down the anchor!"

Some screams...

Followed by the sudden stop of the ship. Of course, the force of physics kicked in as many people went bowling around the deck and the captain lived the few seconds with the fear that the ship may brake in two.

"_Isn't it over yet?" _

"Hey!"

"HEY!!! I asked you something!"

"Stop it! The weather hasn't changed since you last asked me, three minutes ago"

Te'ijal opened her eyes halfway, her red orbs moving towards the two male characters that were currently having a.... conversation. David was certainly impatient and Rashnu was well... Rashnu. The snow blizzard that split them all made her wonder constantly what happened to the others. But yet, as she and the other two "weird companions that weren't humans but were as weird as them" found the only refuge in this old, abandoned, ready to collapse mine, she considered everyone else was perfectly fine, compared to what conditions _they_ had for the next few hours.

Elini smiled satisfied at the inside of the wooden cabin. Although it was small and it wasn't fitting her definition of "house" it was warm and neat. But the constant paranoia the water guardian was emanating, along with the music druid's arguments brought to calm her down were compensating the state of happiness that warm cabin gave her and the only thing she found good for doing was worrying about the others.

Lars coughed, his throat aching horribly. Yelling out your companions' names on a blizzard like that while he had a cold was clearly a not-to-do thing. Frustrated, he fell over in the cold snow, panting hopelessly, waiting for nothing. But a sudden unclear sound made him flinch and stand up, looking around desperately. As the owner of the yell made its appearance in a distance that made Lars able to see clearly, a smile appeared on the green haired sorcerer's face.

Silence.

It was all too silent. Lars was starting to feel uncomfortable as Rhen was avoiding speaking or even eye contacting him. It must have been that idiotic thing he said back when they were on the ship. Crap. He indeed had a cold, but he wasn't unconscious when he said what he said. However, even Lars couldn't find an explanation for why he did it. And as the cold still lingered inside him, the snow was thick and Rhen was mad at him.

Things couldn't get worse. But of course, Murphy's laws were unknown to Lars so, as if Murphy himself heard him, a sick feeling overcame him. He felt like his insides were exploding and he himself will follow soon. An innocent sneeze escaped him as Lars simply ignored it.

"Lars?" Rhen's enchanting yet raised tone rang trough his ears as he, involuntarily, turned around to see a shivering Rhen. "Are you alright?" She asked with a shivery voice as Lars noticed she was closer than he expected.

"Sure" He said, turning back around, showing to the witnessing storm that he wasn't that unaffected.

"Well, I'm not" Rhen said, mostly with an involuntary egoism before Lars could turn around with indignation. Her arms hugged him from the behind and took him by surprise as he felt the sudden cold passing from her freezing body to him. It was a shock. Both thermically and mentally. He shook his head mentally and looked around confused, trying to find something, anything.

He sighed mentally at an apparent ray of hope showing itself to him. But after he blurted out the stammered words, he cursed himself for daring to try speaking.

Hugging her knees, Rhen tried her best not to fall into hypothermia. Even tough the large boulders above their heads were protecting them from the snow, the wind was still reaching them and they had no choice but bare it and wait for the storm to cease. Lars was coughing and sneezing harder than ever and Rhen's temperature was lowering in a worrying manner. Both were dizzy; both were hopeless.

"Lars?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm freezing"

The conversation was, undoubtedly, based mostly on their sub-consciousness as they were only staring blankly at the opposite wall with a dull look in their eyes. The monotony in which their were speaking encouraged the feeling as Lars raised one arm and wrapped it around Rhen's shoulders after her final affirmation, not seeming to want to warm her up, but rather trying to support her.

"Hang in there" He said, encouraging, pulling her closer finishing the sentence with a couple of coughs.

Rhen's eyelids were feeling heavier by the second as she was struggling to keep awake, even tough her body was seeming to be not interested in her purpose. She turned her head slowly towards Lars and looked at him with dull tiredness in her eyes.

"I've been wiling to tell you something a while now" She almost whispered as Lars turned as well, only to eye her with the same expression on his face.

"_I love you"_

The wind seemed to blow harder than ever as Lars' facial expression didn't change.

"_I love you too"_

While two heads were approaching eachother in sync as the northern snow blizzard showed its fury and threw its power mercilessly on the poor unfortunate creatures, Rhen and Lars sank into the tasteless kiss, as their empty minds couldn't process the events. Eventually, the coldness said its word and put them both under its sleep spell while apparently having another two humans be put in danger due to sleeping in the middle of the snow storm.

"Are they inside?"

"I don't know…Wait! Yes! Yes they are!" The miner announced, answering Elini's question and making Kia and Vohu Manah sigh relieved. As the two teens were sitting curled close to eachother and weren't answering when they were called, neither reacted when they were shaken, a sentiment of fear, if not despair, haunted the four people.

"T-they're dead?!" Kia asked in her usual, paranoid style.

"They need medical assistance"

A sudden pain struck Rhen's head as she woke up from her slumber and looked sleepily around, her sight being still blurry. She must have fallen asleep in the cove the other day. Although she was feeling uncertain about something, she was sure some of her journey companions went searching after the storm ceased. Her eyes widened. But what happened to Lars? She gradually calmed down after seeing him sitting up sleepily in the bed on the other side of the room.

"Rhen…" He started, obviously wanting to greet her or something but seemingly, not having the energy necessary for doing so.

"Lars…Do you have any idea of what happened yesterday?" She asked, receiving a weird look coming from Lars.

"Yeah… I remember feeling very sick and then everything went black. We must have fell asleep and someone found us and brought us here"

"That's it? Nothing more?" Rhen asked, certain that she was forgetting something.

"Well, I have a feeling that's not all, but I don't remember anything more clearly" He said, their thoughts being on the same wavelength. "You?"

"Nothing" Rhen said, shrugging her shoulders before they both looked at eachother, smiling friendly and remaining confused about what they knew it happened but they didn't know what it was. The mystery of what happened the previous day lingered in their memories, although not clear enough to be outlined.

………………………………………………

Real: Holy Dancing Peanuts! The chapters I write really do depend on my moods. OoO

Evil: ¬_¬… Shouldn't you be… idk… a little more…. Depressed??

Real: hmmm, maybe. But what good will I do by standing in one corner sobbing??

Good: *sits in corner* *sobs*

Evil: Hmm.. maybe that Good??

Real: You're not funny… ¬_¬

**Author's note:** Yeah, I actually know I made many people mad (including myself) after reading this chapter, buuuuuut…. I will make up, really!

Enjoy~ ^o^


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

Vohu Manah took a sorrowful look over his shoulder, his concern obviously making its way trough his green eyes.

"You caught a cold too?" He asked after the series of furious sneezes that came from the lavender-haired sword singer ceased. She nodded weakly, not turning to face the druid with her tired red eyes. Those tired, red eyes found their place on the relaxed green-haired sorcerer with a slight tint of jealousy burning in them.

"I think I got it from you" She said, her throat protesting at her struggle to use the vocal cords. Her voice was weak and even the most unexperienced person in medicine would have guessed; from her voice; that her every muscle was aching horribly in its sole numbness and that it was, indeed, a grave case of extreme cold. And as Lars wasn't the most unexperienced person in medicine -as he was forced to learn some basic aspects of it, despite his un-willnes and rage- he could tell simply by looking at her the pain she was going trough.

But his mind was unable to find the moment in the past when he sneezed, coughed or did anything else that could sicken any of his companions, especially Rhen. He always avoided even speaking directly to anyone that he supposed to be too close, and so, he stopped as well as he could the virus from spreading. At least his fully conscious mind did.

"How?" He asked, confused, after confirming that he had been very careful. Rhen only shrugged her shoulders in confusion while making way for yet another furious wave of sneezes and coughs to torture her involuntarily contracted muscles, and, respectively, her throat.

It hurt. No. Not the only fact that it was clear as the purest water that it was his fault for her present pain. His entire body hurt. Despite the fact that his cold cured miraculously and his fever disappeared like a simple nightmare; it hurt. It hurt him everytime he was hearing her pain whimpers. Everytime she was sighing defeated. _Everytime_

Why? Why did his feelings towards her seem to be stronger? Why couldn't he remember what happened the other day in the cove? Why were so many questions he couldn't answer, to his prideful despair? Oh, why, God dammit?

Thud.

For a second, it felt like the earth slipped under his feet. Thank God he landed on the white pure soft and yet unimaginably cold northern snow. B-but why wasn't the snow white? It was black. Coal black. The earth was groaning. Wait. The earth was groaning?! What natural anomalies did this haunted land of the frozen held? He looked up as two blood red eyes glared at him, seeming angrier than ever.

Blackmailed by the will of living, Lars popped up straight, making way for the sprawled druid to stand up as well. Oh. So that's why the earth was groaning and the snow was black. Now he had a angry Rashnu glare at him with hatred. Great.

He could see the druid's guardian somewhere in the background. Poor Kia was praying. That's what you get in exchange for excessive paranoia.

But his mind was still confused. When did Rashnu reappear? He, David and Te'ijal were supposed to be gone. He scanned the area, confirming that Te'ijal and David were there as well. His mind must have wandered off to unknown places again. _That damn vampire!_ Wasn't she having fun!

But a perky laugh booted in.

"You kinda stumbled over there, didn't you, dear brother?" Vohu Manah said, laughing and patting Rashnu on his back, convincing him to let Lars live longer in his usual annoying style. Relief. He thanked God that there was a Vohu Manah to sacrifice himself. Although, the praying one was the other guardian. But Lars was relieved.

Too relieved to hear the two now fighting guardians. Lars sighed, disgusted. They were acting like to little kids in a classical 'my daddy is better than yours' combat. He thought once again, that the best thing to do was ignore the crowd for his own good.

Examining the map carefully, Elini still couldn't find the so-called "land of Aveyond". Yet, they were there. In this enchanting wonderful place that wasn't found on the map. The poor map almost had to do with the southern woman's rage if one smiling vampress wouldn't have snatched it before getting the chance to be ripped apart. Te'ijal found it useful to remind the veldtonian woman that she might not consider destroying the single object that actually showed them where they were.

Intrigued, Elini picked her whip and dignity and left the vampire's sight area, humphing with superiority only to receive triumphant smirks for a while on.

Lars made an exasperated gesture after seeing the two females catching up with them. Why did Elini need to check the map for? They were there, weren't they? Thus, he had to admit, if they wouldn't have stopped, he wouldn't had the chance to examine thoroughly the entire dazzling area.

The place was, indeed, as supernatural as the Halloween Hills. But Aveyond was supernatural in the good way. And Lars was surprised to see that one wouldn't get enough only by staring at it. He could waste a whole day like this. But the bees had to change his mind. _Evil little pests!_

"Wha-... Is that a giant teapot I'm seeing?" Rhen asked, blaming the still lingering cold for giving her hallucinations.

Lars opened his mouth to laugh at her affirmation, but his vocal cords were cut short by the sight of what it seemed like the object described by Rhen. Big and hardly unnoticeable, there it was; a eight meters tall blue teapot that had a small brown door at its base. Weird enough to make any newcomer to Aveyond shake his head at least two times and pinch himself to make sure he really still is on the planet Earth.

"Mushrooms?" Te'ijal asked, staring confused at the five meters high giant mushrooms that surrounded the huge teapot.

"This is Teacup Town" Vohu Manah affirmed before Rashnu cut him off, adding that they have no time to visit it now.

As much as everyone wanted to see what was hidden in those mushrooms and in that teapot, they had to comply and follow their way to the Sun Shrine as not obeying Rashnu's commands was risky enough.

If the Harmony Temple was beautiful enough to make one stare for a considerable amount of time -and since the Dark Temple was impossible to observe-, the Sun Shrine was beautiful enough to make one forget to breathe. The immensity, architecture, position and everything else about it was combined in a perfect way, being able to amaze in a dumb-striking way even the most ignorant person.

However, staring at the Sun Shrine from the outside was not the purpose they traveled all the way there for. So, they were all dragged inside without their permission, only to find an even more dumb-striking inside.

Lars had to admit, the inside of the Sun Shrine was more complicated than he thought, judging by the first appearances. Only the druids and guardians that were being escorted knew how they got in that huge, light room. But it was indeed beautiful. Breathtakingly beautiful.

Rhen looked puzzled at the Oracle, not actually believing that the powerful entity was standing before her, despite the plan she revealed. Not understanding the old lady's strategy, Rhen decided not to press the matter and obey, taking the Oracle's advices. Advices that happened to be very complicated. The whole 'Oh, it will be an easy task, you just go and get the druids and we will take care of the rest' thing was a foolery. She knew from the very second she started the quest that it won't be an easy task, but... now that she had to face the fact that she had to destroy the most powerful demon in the world wasn't the most heartwarming thing.

A door suddenly slid open as the many eyes in the room were headed curiously, to see the newcomer. The brown haired young man eyed the crowd with an expression that showed irritation for a couple of seconds before changing it, like a mask, to a cheerful one.

"You look familiar" two young voices sang in unison before the owners threw bitter looks at eachother, thankfully, only for a second before their attention was captivated by the newcomer again.

"Well, yes... I am..." He started, but was cut off by the Oracle.

"On the side of good, now"The Oracle said, as many surprised looks had to be shown.

"Pffft" Lars puffed, unsatisfied.

Crap. All of this was crap. Why did he get himself into crap, again? Oh, yeah. That was one involuntary impulse that he had to obey that day he visited the empress of Veldarah. Because he wanted to be with Rhen,... _and_ the idea of letting the humanity be enslaved by demons wasn't the brightest idea. But, concentrating on the first reason; he chose to waste his time to get to this lavender-haired sword singer that he had no idea what he found so attractive at, for what? For seeing this half-shaved dude act all nicely around her and giving her "you see, I am way better than that immature brat"-like allusions? No, thank you! He could pass this easily with one simple snobby sentence: _"I am tired of this quest, I'm going home"_

_But.... _

But what would happen after that? Three fatal consequences...

Hiss.

"_Y-you are leaving? Lars! You... You cannot! I thought we were going to finish this quest together. You were the only one here from the beginning... Y..You can't...I-it's i-impossible..."_

Mocking laugh.

"_What is wrong, kiddo? The life gave you a tough decision once in a while and you run away? Well, it can't be helped then. Have fun wasting your life at home, grass patch" _

Sigh.

"_Awh, Lars! I am glad that your mind came back to its senses and you returned home. I could not have you wander around with clowns. Now you can stay with your mommy forever since there's no more stupid slave to tidy up everything and amuse me!"_

Lars shivered as a terrified whimper escaped him, attracting everyone's attention. Making a face that acted like nothing happened, he soon rid of everyone's attention, with the small "Epic...." muttered by Dameon.

He would never leave this quest. Leaving Rhen with this halfie-baldie was the stupidest idea one can get. No. NO! Not under any circumstances! He will fight on because he wanted to finish this quest with pride and dignity _and_ keep Rhen away from the freak with the same amount of pride and dignity.

Oh, and his mother's cooking tasted like crap....

…....................................................................

Real me: OMG! I was so slow on this one!! Sorry everyone!!

Evil: yeah, maybe because your computer goes all lagging crazy.

Good: oh * lag * what do * lag * you * lag * mean?

Evil: O-O.. .Uhhhh nevermind


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24**

That had to be some joke. A town without an inn was like a book missing several pages. The muscular pain was slowly reaching Lars' bones. Why did this town have to be so puzzling? Plus, the people were scary enough. Not to mention that he could swear he had with ten pennies more when they left the Sun Shrine. It smelled like thieves in this town.

Rolling his eyes in disbelief, Lars literally dragged himself along the crowded streets of Sedona. Snobby people! Now he was perfectly sure that ten more pennies went missing from his wallet. And there were guards everywhere. Just _why_ were those guys put there if they weren't capable of stopping the thieves from robbing people in the clear day?

Maybe he should have taken that over-dimensioned vegetable's advice and keep his eyes open. He shook his head furiously, with a disgusted feeling. It was clearly the inhabitants' weird accent that made his mind twist.

"What-..."

"If you ask that again, I'll make you swallow that smelly cloak of yours in one gulp." Lars responded, irritated. Although he wanted to do it without having the sun wimp ask what time is it again, he needed a reason for doing so. The brown haired man's face distorted in a annoyed grimace, that Lars supposed it as being a glare.

"Whatever, kiddo. I'll take this way. Have fun convincing the cow that you didn't plant grass on your head on purpose" Dameon said, turning smugly on his heel and leaving Lars behind, to deal alone with the insult he just suffered, before realizing the stupidity of the over-dimensioned vegetable's remark.

Mentally cursing Lars and anything related to Lars, he made his way trough the crowd, forgetting completely that his purpose was to find an inn. Like he cared...

The people were loud in this city. Loud _and_ lacked sense of direction. Ironic thing that they actually considered themselves "nobles" and acted all exquisite with lacy fans, shiny shoes and neat hats. Nobles was only the mere word they wanted to use for not civilized. Receiving numerous elbow hits, being pushed and played like a ball countless times, Dameon hoped that Lars actually remained behind and didn't follow him only to laugh at his stupidity and then rant to everyone about it. Come to think of it, why would he follow him? Although, he had to admit, the fact that he got into this party was-...

He grunted automatically at the powerful bump received. He turned around to eye the person that just passed by him, being sure that he'll receive another one of those "Ah, mon Dieu! Zhese newcomerhz are juste as bad as zheir stupide food". But he was surprised to see that the person that passed him in the most careless manner walked only a few meters ahead, before stopping abruptly and slowly turning around, almost as if the rays of realization lied themselves upon the shocked mortal.

Getting a better image of the character, Dameon could confirm that it was a female, and more important, that it was a thief. Maybe the tight brown leather outfit and the hood were the ones that betrayed her.

The thief stepped angrily towards the sun priest, making sure that the immortal character received one glimpse of the angry eyes that shined furiously from under the shade of the hood. Grabbing a handle, she pulled out a dagger from an unknown place and attempted wielding it with force towards her victim's neck, but stopped halfway, looking around with a 'back-on-Earth' expression in her eyes and pushed the dagger with hatred in its rest while glaring at the sun priest.

"Lucky slug" She said, aggressively, surprising Dameon with her frenchless accent while attempting to run off into the crowd. But a hand grabbed her hood, pulling it off and rotating it in a one hundred and eighty degree angle, busting her disguise and forcing her to face the sun priest.

It was only for a second, but Dameon was able to see and memorize the face of his nearly-to-be murderer, before the girl could drag the piece of cloth over her chocolate brown locks in reflex and run off into the crowd, leaving Dameon in utter numbness.

"Do not dare ask!" Rhen threatened with a death glare pointed at the questioning looking Lars that could only let his jaw drop, in something that wasn't amazement nor shock. But more like a hilarious confusion. But as Rhen ordered, he did not even share a smile but just passed the angry female, not finding explanations for any of his questions.

With a quick turn, he eyed Rhen from the behind and took a thinking pose, concluding that 'green doesn't suit her'. And with only one shrug of his shoulders, he ignored Elini's indifferent-smug-like face that had that "ha! I know what's going on here and you don't" look on it and waited for either of the companions in the room to say that they are to leave the tailor building.

Straightening herself to look presentable, Rhen took a deep breath and passed the butler that sat next to the opened door. The old man only eyed her with the corner of his eye as she was passing, but said nothing and his smug sight found itself in the space again, leaving Rhen sigh relieved as she entered the extra-large-sized lobby.

Her purpose here was finding more about the very attractive note that was found on the door of that presentable, large, nice house across the road, yes? Of course it was. Although, she had to admit that the fact that there was no price written anywhere on the pretty piece of paper was rather scary. And she could see herself going back to the others, defeated, saying that they shall sleep on the cold earth, hoping that the beasts won't bother them too much.

She found herself in that annoying situation when you go to a party and you know no one and no one knows you, sitting on an empty chair, alone and watch the others dance and have fun. That part wasn't included in her plan. Of course, the plan didn't mention her wearing that annoying dress along with that corset that made her suffocate, but let's say this wasn't such an obligatory step.

That must have been a godly miracle. The easiness that helped her get that manor made her suffer a short shock, just as well as the lowered price. She actually got it working _that_ easily? It seemed so, despite her amazement. And like the fate choose to play pranks on her while she was in a state where her brain couldn't process events very easily, a wave of events stormed across her mind, while she only sat back, watching them and not knowing what to believe.

"_What do you say about that? We live in a world where demons are actually _helping_ the chosen ones" _A female ironic voice chanted, with a tone filled with sarcasm.

"_Yeah. And guess what? In the same world, guardians are thieves" _A male voice responded, generating a mass of further arguments.

Two orange eyes fixing Rhen's

"_If the humanity gets enslaved, be sure that you'll be prepared. Because I'll slap you with my own hand" _The threaten wasn't really scary. Knowing how many other physical damages she suffered, it was just... something as important as a dust particle. But the physical pain wasn't the purpose of the slap promised. It was so she could translate it as a "I told you so".

Frowning at the slamming door, Rhen turned around, ignoring the sun priest's insulting comments and eyed another character in the room. She could see a small smirk a few inches under a pair of shiny green eyes. Those eyes were, undoubtedly, saying something. And it was that damn phrase: "Now, I told you so. Now I have one more ally. Howd'ya feel about that?"

Of course, that was the dramatized version of what Lars' happiness was about. Dramatized by Rhen's anger state. She just left the room, silencing Dameon, who had no one to rant to, and slammed the door after her.

This day couldn't get any better for Lars, at a first thought. Seeing the sun wimp coming with that flushed expression on his face was good enough. But having one guardian on his side was even better. And having Rhen get pissed for not being able to have everyone on her side was bad enough to make his day turn from great to horrible. Not to say that it was annoying how it felt not to be believed by anyone.

He looked at the two female watchers and rolled his eyes, with the words "wax statues"runing trough his mind.

…...............................

I shall stop with the real/evil/good things as I really don't feel like it lately. Oh yeah, it's because of school. TT^TT Oh and they happened to return to my soul again, if you wonder.

Noooooowwww, the reason I am sooo freakin' late is the school of course... Anyway, I have 22 male classmates out of a total of 30 kids in the class and I still need to get a hold of myself when I go to the physics class and be the first one that finishes the scheme.

Now I shall go hang the clothes and then do my extra math homework and work on that project for informatics (this will happen later... o). TT_TT Please comment~


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25**

There were surely many confused minds in the party. And that meant all of them. Including Rhen's. However, that was certainly not one of the reasons so serious to make them stop from their quest.

The Oracle sent her on a quest. It was the luck that made her come across Lars and the others. All this was the Oracle's plan, for sure. She wouldn't have sent Rhen if she wouldn't have known exactly where and how Rhen will go and gather the druids. Strategy. The Oracle was smart, indeed. But... did she actually plan Dameon coming out of the nowhere, claiming that he betrayed evil? Analyzing it this way, Rhen found that it was pretty illogical how the blessed "know what? I finally realized that I am doing wrong. I shall go on the Good side" thought came out of the blue in Dameon's head.

Maybe... Just _maybe_... Marine and Lars were right from the start. Maybe they shouldn't trust him. Rhen thought for a second over the last phrase that lingered in her mind, but her thoughtful expression changed drastically into a straight face with a small "humph" as she realized that Dameon actually entered the Sun Shrine. The Oracle and two more guardians were there. If not even them could sense if he was evil, then it was just one of Marine's hissy fits and Lars was... well... acting weird without an explanation Rhen could find. How could she have been so stupid to think that Dameon would actually do something to them?

However, being absent-minded for a long time isn't healthy. So Rhen just had to be woken up by Te'ijal asking for her help in her sarcastic manner. Help, I mean, to defeat the big, boney, cloaked monster that was wielding a rusty sword, but sharp enough to slice a rock in two.

Hard. That definitely fit the description of 'hard'. If not even more. Every bit of energy was drained as Rhen's bruised body collapsed on the hard rock ground, while her lungs tried desperately to oxygenate what didn't manage to get enough air throughout the battle. It was actually the lack of hard battles they had to encounter the past few days that said its word. That's what stopping from exercising means.

Rhen eventually stood up on her own legs, noticing that Elini was interested in one particular "something" further from the scene of slaughter that occurred earlier. Interested in what Elini was staring at on her knees, Rhen made her way next to the southerner and took the same position as she did, curious on what was that "something".

As soon as she spotted the object of interest, Rhen let out a disappointed sound. She shook her head in pity at the apparently dead brown-haired mammal as Elini muttered something about being a pity that things like this happen.

"What's that?"a male voice asked, curiously, from behind.

"A lynx. I think it's dead" Elini said, standing up and turning around, not wanting to linger around the deceased animal anymore. Rhen prepared to stand up as well, but she saw one green eye open slightly and was nothing more than surprised.

The head moved to the side in the most natural way as the two pointy ears popped up, searching for sounds as well as the viper green eyes started scanning the area in a tired manner. Only then the weird colors of the lynx could be noticed. Ignoring that its fur had an odd shade of brown, the fur that covered its ears, paws and, occasionally, a small portion of the body were light green. Not to mention the green shade of the eyes.

It was a sad image. Seeing the animal looking with those exhausted eyes, hopelessly around, searching something that could help made her feel bad. But just as bad as she felt for not approaching the feline, there was one thing in her mind that told her it was dangerous, ignoring how badly injured the animal was.

It was struggling to stand up with many short grunts, failing countless times, but having some sort of uncommon will. The loss of blood was surely immense, and it seemed like it was more than an animal its size should have in its body. However, despite the fact that the lynx had a big collection of cuts and wounds, the willing grunts were still heard from the small throat as the animal continued making Rhen feel bad for actually owning the ability to rationalize.

A presence was sensed by Rhen as she stood up and eyed Dameon behind her, before turning her back to him again and responded his questions shortly, obviously being more interested in the suffering mammal.

"I shall sacrifice myself" Dameon said with a sigh before approaching the feline.

"Maybe you shouldn't" Rhen said, uncertain, watching from the side as the sun priest was roaming the road to his to-be-bitten hand's fate.

With a fast reflex, the his hand retreated and Rhen rolled her eyes in a "I told you so" manner. But a hiss stopped her from saying the phrase and caught the attention of those who were about to call the departure.

Despite the struggles from earlier and the severe physical damage suffered, not to mention the loss of blood, the feline was now hissing fiercely at the sun priest, with its paws well pinned in the earth, ears laid back and sharp fangs that warned that shape counts, not size.

There was a determination never seen before by Rhen. The lynx was snapping its teeth in anger, not caring that Dameon could actually kill it with a mere kick, considering its actual physical state.

One small shine.

Blessed be the laws of optical physics.

Rhen covered her mouth in surprise at seeing the small black collar around the cat's neck. A guardian. It was surely a guardian. That meant there was a druid nearby... And that was why the anger bursting out of the mammal's veins. The wounds must have been surely coming from the demon earlier.

Lars shoved Dameon in a powerful thud, before the sun priest could kick, annoyed, the sorrowful lynx.

A random moment that left everyone in a blank confusion.

Filled with rage, the two viper green eyes landed on the sun priest with a unearthly look inside them. Rhen looked slightly concerned at the female guardian that stood meters before her.

"_Even if I will die trying, I shall exterminate everything that you are and everything that you will ever be."_

That was the only translation that could be found in those hatred-filled eyes.

The girl had to be held back. She was in a bad state. But the force she was struggling against Lars was more than any damaged person could have. His hand almost let her arm go, but something made his grip stronger. The girl was certainly just as sober as everyone else, but she certainly wasn't fooled as easy as the others since she wanted to tear Dameon apart to badly.

She refused to talk even after the situation was explained to her. That was surely her way of telling that she didn't trust a word from what they said. And as the sound of her voice still remained a mystery while Rhen tried hardly to change her mind, Lars let out an annoyed groan glaring at the so-called priest.

"Fine" The acute feminine voice pierced sharply trough everyone's ears as she stood up from her dirt patch, defeated by Rhen's numerous arguments.

The druid of agriculture definitely fit Lars' definition for 'druid'. He had grown to make one, since the two druids they delivered to the Sun Shrine were acting surprisingly odd. Armaiti was no exception. And of course he got a ll fired up when he spotted his guardian covered in bruises and wounds, losing blood but refusing any medical assistance from either Lars or Dameon.

If Rashnu was to stay quiet at everything around him and Vohu Manah to blab and blab, then Armaiti was annoyed by almost everything. A weird behavior for a druid his level, some would say. It was more surprising how could he not stop scolding the girl all the way to the Sun Shrine. Contradicting himself numerous times, he either scolded her because she didn't manage to win the fight with the demon called Tawrich, either because she overdid it and she got hurt.

Eventually, the druid's aggressive scolds ceased as a veil of silence set itself upon the entire party, leaving Lars to debate over what was happening in peace, and also trying to predict what was going to happen next.

By the time they reached the Sun Shrine, he realized that it was better that he didn't burst out and tell everyone how much he lacked faith in Dameon. Not being able to believe that a druid would have that kind of behavior, he didn't actually intend on taking the two teenagers' part as they were being scolded.

He saw a tint of disappointment combined with anger on Rhen's face that somehow held him back. But the smirk on Dameon's face, he couldn't miss. Trying to convince somebody that you're on their side is okay. But feeling good while they are yelled at for not believing you is something else. Not to mention that he was a fool for not realizing that a skeptic person was equivalent with a cautious person.

"...no, you listen to me. This has gone too far! How blind can you be?" A angry female voice growled, annoyed at the crowd of people.

The Oracle sighed gently, closing her eyes in a calming manner.

"This is not your job now. Your priority is to do what you are ordere-..."

"Oracle" Lars' voice smashed on the walls as numerous eyes were turned towards him. But his knees went numb when the Oracle looked up at him. _That woman had a weird influence on humans..._ "I do think that we should be aware of what the two guardians say." He continued, trying to speak as fluent as he could, without stammering and without sounding defeated.

But he already knew he was defeated. Although his pride didn't let him show it just yet. Many disappointed looks hit him mercilessly. And the two encouraging looks weren't strong enough.

_Good things come in small packages..._

…........................................................

It makes no sense, I know TT_TT. Give me a break, I am tired and my cousin confused me. And I have a long day tomorrow DX I shall try finish some other things before mom's movie ends and she asks me to go to sleep. T^T Hope you enjoyed~


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26**

Lars couldn't believe it. It was okay for normal humans to do mistakes like those. But part of the magical entities to do it was something outrageously unforgivable. Being absurd, one could say that the guardians weren't whole magical entities, therefore, they could easily mistake too. But the Oracle, and the other druids too? Unforgivable.

"_I understand your concerns, my boy. But please understand that in our current state, we can only recruit as many as possible. We are losing land..."_

Yes. Were they _that_ desperate? They were less in number than the forces of evil, indeed, but that did not mean they could recruit just anyone. And the sun wimp was the last person to trust. Te'ijal mentioned before that the Oracle was smart, after the plan was explained to her. The Oracle was indeed smart. But it was still a mystery how she could do such a thing as trusting the former servant of evil.

Lars leaned on the wall of the opposite room, replaying the previous discussion between him and the Oracle in his mind. She said that they needed to recruit more people due to the lack of land before a female guardian could snap.

The heavy door opened as he lifted his eyes in the light before his head changed its trajectory, obviously avoiding something. Something more. A person. A gaze. A discussion. Maybe a fight. But changing the angle of your head isn't always a solution to these problems.

The conversation that followed was something out of ordinary. Something spontaneous that surprised Lars more than anything. It distorted so many times and the reactions were so different, he could only believe that he must be blessed with some sort of natural immunity the humanity didn't know of. The immunity to foolery.

"How can you be so ignorant?" Rhen snapped at Lars' final affirmation, smashing the silent, calm tone that used to be kept. His eyes popped up only to see her anger-filled purple orbs.

"I am not ignorant, I am realist" He said coldly, looking away and trying the classical method to avoid her gaze once again.

"_Why..."_ Rhen's voice shivered before something that sounded like a silent sob could be freed from her throat. That made Lars eye her once again, but in a different manner.

"Why have you changed so much and so sudden?" She said, making a pause. "When I first found out that you were to come with me in this quest, I was very happy; because it meant you could be there with me and soften every bad feeling the quest itself gave to me. I thought it would be... _fun_..."

"But I was happy too! Everything was perfectly fine until your personality ran off like it was chased by wild horses. Until you started giving in before the influence... " Although it seemed so real, Lars couldn't hear himself say those heavy words out loud. Fear? No. He simply wasn't able to say anything. Just listen and clench his teeth.

_Like an animal... _

"You weren't like this before. I thought..." Rhen started again, with a face that expressed the fact that heavy words were to come. But was cut short by the heavy door sliding to the side.

"Is there something wrong?" Elini's question popped in that unique accent of hers. Rhen shook her head no and left the darkened hallway, re-entering the room and leaving Lars to deal with Elini's confused state alone.

A final conversation ran trough Lars' head involuntarily, shuffling his thoughts.

"_I know how it feels not being believed. But now I am glad that I have someone to talk with." _A female voice declared, looking with angry eyes at the group of people.

"_Why aren't they believing anything?" _Lars asked, trying to find the answer to something that seemed answerless to him from the two individuals that seemed to have more knowledge in this stuff than he had.

"_Blindness. Typical human urge to do everything in the easier fashion, without thinking that there might be a trap" _The same female voice answered, sounding like a stranded entity that only discovered and studied the behavior of humans a while ago.

"_Can't we do anything?" _A higher pitched female voice asked, with a shivery tint en-clasped to it. Tint that betrayed the fury attack she had only a while ago.

"_Right now it's impossible. We need to wait" _The other female voice answered yet again before a motion sound was made and before Lars' party could make the call for leaving_"If something happens, go to Dreamland"_

He sat idly on the comfy couch in his room and waited. For that _'something_' to occur. But time was passing in a lazy manner and the something didn't give any sign of wanting to make a grandiose entrance, like he was predicting it according to Marine's statement. But reality finally dropped a furious fist upon his head and his neurons started sending messages faster, therefore, realization came before his eyes.

He could not wait for something. He did not know how or when it was planned to occur, but it was obvious that waiting won't solve anything. So he had to patiently wait, while looking after how to spend his life until it did.

"Aaaaaaand, why did you say you were here?" Lars asked, looking blankly at the curled-haired man in front of him. The pirate slapped his forehead, being already tired after the five times he had to explain Lars why he was recruited. This time Elini came with hard arguments, shutting Lars up and making his attention turn to yet another individual.

"But what are _you_ doing here?" He asked, looking at the stoic armored man before him as yet another series of questions were put up.

Lars sighed in an exasperated manner before sitting violently on the couch. Things happened, once again, too fast for his mind to process. A second ago they were on the northern isle, contemplating how to get their hands on a ship, or whatever was used for locomotion, and now they were back in their mansion in Sedona, sitting relaxed with two more food-consumers in their party _and_ a giant reptile near the shore of the grand city that happened to roar and growl all day, annoying most of the "civilized citizens", as Dameon would say.

Yeah, things were evolving fast and the last few changes that took place stormed in his mind made him take back his theory in which they had to wait too much. But one big question made his expression change drastically as his mind processed a crucial detail.

"Say, Elini" He suddenly blurted out as the tanned woman turned her gaze to him. "Where did the Oracle say the Druid of Time was?" He added, crossing his arms in the attempt of not showing any emotion.

The southern woman seemed to think.

"I think the Northern Isle... Somewhere in some caves." She said, unsure.

"Exactly, and why didn't we remain there and had to return here?" Lars asked, trying to drag the realization in front of Elini's face.

"Because... " She started but realized that she had nothing to continue the sentence with. They visited those group of isles called "Veniara Isles" without any particular reasons. They knew the location of the last druid and they wandered off, even tough they were adviced to go there right away.

It's been three days. And many things happened during those three days. In those three days they could have done something more constructive. More than fishing John and Galahad and a reptile the pirate has stolen. Oh, so they did illegal things too. A stolen dragon was in their custody. And good thing the paladin didn't know or didn't care about that. They would have been mashed since the day they stepped in front of the king of Sedona.

This was confusing indeed, but it seemed like none of them actually cared about it. They were blind. Too blind.

…....................................................................

WOOOH. Meeeh my chapters are getting more and more confusing ;-;

Oh, just in case, if you care.... I just realized how bloody "Remember the magic" will be. So by the time it will be posted, there will probably be age restrictions due to violence and language...just so you are warned... ;-;

Anwyay, Im off to editing the next chappie. Meanwhile, enjoy this one ^^


	27. Chapter 27

**Chapter 27**

"What?!" Rhen almost screamed in disbelief, trying to find place for a glare, but unfortunately failing. A nod came from a male on the other side of the room. Faced covered by a mask, bruised and ripped apart, the boy remained in his own misery as the rest of the crowd had rage attacks.

"And you mean we have only three druids safe?" Te'ijal blurted out, the wonders of mathematics showing her that six minus three equals three.

"So what do we do?"

"Where are the other ones located?"

"Is there any way to fix this mess?"

"Can I have a sandwich?"

Numerous blank glares lied upon the black-haired pirate. His stomach started protesting in a loud manner as soon as the silence suggested how annoyed they all were. John opened his mouth to verbally fight the crowd, but the sound of stretched leather made him change his mind as a certain silver-haired woman threatened mimically from the front of the group.

"Wait. Three?" Rhen asked, not remembering when the third missing druid was mentioned. Eithera went missing from the beginning, Vata was surrounded in an ambush and.... who was the last druid?

"Yeah, Daena went missing too a while before Vata did." Talia affirmed. Rhen's face turned into a frown as she lied a suspicious gaze upon the dark brown haired female in the room. And if that was true, why wouldn't the poison guardian blurt out everything, being in a very bad emotional state and so on, as she would always do?

Talking with Marine was indeed a waste of time. And Rhen knew that from the beginning, but could not help but just try to interrogate the guardian. Marine was acting all snobby with a bit of smugness on the top, but careful enough not to let Rhen find out what she wanted to. Waste of time. Perfect. Now the only thing Rhen found from the talk with the orange eyed girl was that Marine was angrier and more determined than she thought. Just that she didn't want to show it that much. But in a moment of despair after the poison guardian just cut her short with a well-placed answer, Rhen could only find a thing to ask; a thing that she was willing to ask for a while now.

"What happened to your hair?" Rhen asked bitterly, analyzing the bangs that have grown over the other girl's forehead, and the rest of her hair that turned from almost-waist-long to shoulder-long. Marine sighed in a "will-people-stop-asking-me-that?" manner.

"I cut it off... Because I needed it to be shorter" She said simply, avoiding to give more information.

"I didn't know your hair was wavy" Rhen affirmed after a deeper analyze. Marine smiled in sarcasm almost like telling "will-people-stop-saying-that-too?".

"Guh!" Rhen groaned in exasperation, turning her back to Marine and trying to get away from her as fast as possible.

"Woman talk" John muttered as the lavender-haired teen passed him, only to get a elbow in his stomach from Elini.

Everyone seemed way too worried for their own good. The situation was bad, yes, but in everyone's despair, no one bothered to ask what is to be done now. Some had a moment of smartness and let out sighs, pitying their status. But a moment was only a moment, so no one bothered to look up to see who had been fully conscious for a while. It was a lame, pathetic image; seeing brave heroes whose goal was to save the world having their fists firmly planted in their cheeks, with their elbows in contact with their knees, admiring the marblish floor and mentally crying themselves to death.

However, what could be noticed on the Sun Priest's face was the beginning of a smirk. But who could have seen him? The people (if not statues) in the room were vegetating with such lack of sense, not even thinking of staring up and give it another chance. While Dameon was, of course, still daydreaming about whatever happy thoughts he had _right _and_ exactly_ in that very moment of worry.

But one eye with an insistent curious gaze had caught his attention. John looked away as soon as the Sun Priest looked at him. Pitying the poor man for standing in the sunlight too much and blaming the fact that he could not stand the shock, the pirate concluded that he found the reason for the Priest's behavior; smiling creepily while standing like a wax doll in one place.

"I knew that this "magic" will get us into trouble" A low-pitched voice caught attention, breaking the silence and bringing everyone back to their human senses.

"So you admit that it exists, my honey biscuit?" Te'ijal asked as a victorious grin started occupying her face.

"No, I still think it's just a matter of illusions. The whole story about its existence brought us distress" He said as a lot of humphs and groans were heard from the room.

What the Goddess were they doing? _Fighting_ in a moment like this? Talia was currently slapping her face while the Oracle was shaking her head in disappointment. _Children_.

Galahad backed off in surprise after the paper he pulled out from the pocket suddenly set on fire. After the smoke rose to the ceiling, Galahad blinked in confusion.

"Oops, it seems that my illusion pet has just carbonized your paper" Lars said in a manner that showed clearly that he was by far the most offended person in the room. In the next second, two male voices started throwing hysterical laughs across the room.

David and Rajah were pointing victorious at the paladin while their laughs echoed in the room.

"H-he... hrk... he said, he said... and then..." Rajah tried to reproduce the scene between laughs as he hardly gasped for air.

"_Enough!_ " The Oracle's voice echoed, silencing the two laughing male characters. "Your indifference regarding this quest is disgusting me. The fate of the world is in your hands, children, what are you thinking?" The Oracle snapped, breathing heavily and looking all around the room. "As for you, " She continued, looking at the two guardians "your insolence is disagreeable. You should be ashamed of yourself. This is exactly the behavior that brought this evil upon us"

"Don't you say, we are like a magnet. I wonder what certain character is betraying us"

"Marine!"

"_Quiet!_ " A younger female voice covered the Oracle's. Everyone eyed the dreamer in a weird manner as the redhead inhaled slowly. "We probably can't do anything at the moment. Besides having you kids go there and get slaughtered."

"Pfft!"

The bored puff was really out of place but woke everyone up and set them off, leaving the Sun Shrine and leaving the Oracle in her silent distress suddenly and unexpectedly. Of course many problems were being brought up the second the group found itself out of the marble temple, but no one knew how to answer any of the questions.

"We should probably listen to the priestess" John stated suddenly, silencing the whole fussing group with his dumb-striking affirmation. Elini smiled a victorious-smug smile as the pirate looked blankly around him. "I do not know about you, but I do not want to risk my life just _that_ much."

"I say..."

"We should..."

"This is stupid" Lars started, covering Galahad and Dameon who have just started their sentences, but were brutally interrupted. "Whatever choice we take, it's not good. We cannot go to find the other druids and we can't do anything else, either" Elini frowned and crossed her arms.

"What about having patience, northerner?"

"Am I the only one who noticed that the Oracle has no defense and the Sun Shrine is worse guarded than the sewers in Ghed'ahre?" Lars answered the southern woman promptly.

"There are no sewers in..."

"Exactly!" Lars confirmed as Te'ijal's mouth formed an 'oh'.

Everybody was left in a moment of realization as what Lars said made perfect sense. Dameon frowned, defeated and thought of the only (immature) thing to say in that very moment.

"And what do _you_ plan to do right now?"

"Alright, stop it!" Rhen started, annoyed. "It's true, we have nothing to do right now. You may go wherever you wish. I need a break and I guess you do too" She continued, attempting to turn around.

"You mean....?"

"Yes, yes, whatever" Rhen said, not turning back to see whoever asked the question and setting off alone to somewhere only she knew, in the grassy land of Aveyond, leaving the group in shock, like a pack of sled dogs that were given the key to freedom and did not know what to do with it.

* * *

Please. Do not ask. I know, it's confusing and everything is happening very fast, but turst me, in my head, everything is happening 10x faster DX

And sorry for the late update.... I was busy with school * **struggling to keep up with everything * ;-;**

Hope you enjoyed reading; please comment ^^


	28. Chapter 28

**Chapter 28**

The moment of mind loss they all had after they saw Rhen leaving passed faster than anyone would expect. Lars found himself alone in Thornkeep, sipping loudly from a mug of mud-tasting liquid that made him think that he will throw up every second. Things were going too fast, indeed.

A large animal stopped in front of him, making him unable to see the glistening fire anymore. The large animal was a member of the canine family and was slavering abundantly with a happy-looking expression on its face. Lars stood up, engrossed and dropped the half-filled mug on the floor on purpose. Throwing the blanket he had been wearing to warm himself up on the Saint Bernard dog, he left the inn abruptly, ignoring the keeper's calls.

This was already too much.

"Because you cannot stay away from your soul too much" Te'ijal said, swinging a stone locket in front of the paladin's eyes. Galahad's eyes widened in shock as his mouth opened to speak, but found it difficult to do so. Te'ijal grinned smugly before he could react and spun around again, following her way.

"Y-y-you stole my soul?!" Galahad asked with a tone filled with indignation, anger, shock and anything else combined. The vampire did not turn around, neither slow down as the paladin was forced to follow her.

"Oh, don't be like that, my dumpling. You didn't even notice its absence. That coated man from Veldarah was nice enough to lower the price of the pendant for me. Now don't look at me like that" She said, before many diplomatic insults were thrown at her and before she could ignore them in a more diplomatic way.

With a worried expression, Te'ijal eyed the sand beneath her feet. The last time they went to Veniara, the sand was gold yellow, now it turned into the color of a moldy lemon of a shade between yellow and gray. That was a reason to get worried.

"So what do you think?" Galahad asked out of the blue, after his long speech about why human beings need their souls to live in peace.

"Hmm?"

"About the quest"

"Oh, well, I think the lavender-haired girl should settle down for a while before- I actually think that every of them should see the best option and-..."

"No, I meant what do _you_ think of the quest" Te'ijal spun around and eyed the paladin in a weird manner. Their ship was ready to sail off.... The vampire put on a concerned expression.

"The conditions of these land are worry some. I would opt for the dangerous choice" She said shortly adding a smirk at the end. Galahad remained in silence, not responding or either telling Te'ijal his own opinion.

"Sheips goieng tew Seidona, Dirkoun, Broomweech leeving ein feiftein meinut'"(!) A cracked voice yelled as it took seconds for the two to realize what the rum-addict just said. They rushed to the sheep as the yeller gave them a glare before mumbling something about 'white-as-cheese wetlanders".

Her mind was blank. Absolutely blank. She was not able to think, react, feel anymore. Everything was going bad. And everyone acted as if it didn't actually matter. The burnt log she was sitting on right now could very well collapse and with a more pessimistic mind, Rhen could even break one leg or one arm as her "chair" was suspended a few meters above the -now- ruins.

She could have given up right in the day she got the opportunity to get away from Ghalarah. She would have continued to serve Rona and watch the sky fill with black clouds as the guardians, the Oracle and the druids would have covered their teary eyes in despair while wondering why did she refuse and choose to leave the world suffer slowly.

But she didn't.

She chose to live on and fight for everything, not die like a rat in poisoned flour. She could very well choose to fight this time, as well.

Rhen grinned stupidly at the thought of her daring to think that she could actually defeat a whole army. _Stupid. AND too much._

"Are you okay?"

Stupid thing to do. Grabbing her sword (even if it was a reflex) in the position she was in _without_ falling was like bribing the cow with grass and then tell her not to eat any.

**Thud.**

"Not anymore" Rhen answered frankly before standing up from between the bricks and wood. Elini smiled amused as she watched Rhen dust her clothes.

"What are you doing here?" Rhen asked, looking at the tanned woman.

"Well, a certain pirate stole the dragon-"

"Rampadel" Rhen corrected her.

"...stole Rampadel and went to the furthest of Veniara Isles and is now probably getting drunk." Elini continued, crossing her arms emotionlessly.

Rhen covered her face with her palms and let out a long sigh. Now one of them got away and took the dragon with him too. Their locomotion system was gone. Great. "If you are worrying about John not returning, stop it" Elini said as Rhen eyed her. "He _will_ return to us _with_ the dragon." She added in a threatening manner.

Examining the surroundings for the first time, Elini could only express her slight amazement with her partially opened mouth. Ruins. Big deal. A town that was probably vandalized by what the northerners called "the minions of evil". The ruins didn't have any significance, but the simple fact that they were there was worrysome. It looked like it had been a nice village in its past life.

"It's called Clearwater" Rhen broke the silence.

"Wh-?"

"The village; its name is Clearwater" Elini didn't respond, but continued looking around the destroyed community. "_It was my hometown_" Rhen continued in a grave tone as the southerner's sight migrated from the surroundings on the long-haired girl, almost like asking "really?". Rhen nodded, looking down, trying to hold back emotions.

"But..." Elini started, attempting to say something but finding out that there was nothing to say in that moment. After a long period of silence, Rhen sniffed, and made a sign with her hand to Elini that they had to go.

It was cold. But not the fact that Lars forgot to set the fire made the house cold. The lack of emotion was making it freeze. Rhen remembered that Galahad once said that it never snowed in Sedona; at least as long as he knew. Then what were those white feathers outside? Snow, right.

"S-set the fire, northerner, my blood is freezing in my veins!" Elini said stuttering. Lars obeyed and the next second the fire was lighting the room. Even with Rhen's given up coat and her own, Elini was still freezing in front of the fire.

Rhen ignored the southerner's curses towards the northlands and sat on the couch simply. Lars moved to the side, not looking up from the purple book he was currently reading.

"What are you reading?" Rhen suddenly asked.

"Spells" Lars responded firmly.

Rhen took a look at the pages. Latin. Uninteresting; it wasn't her thing anyway.

"Look, Lars-"

Swoosh.

"Why in the world is snowing in Sedona?" Galahad asked with indignation in his voice while slamming the door shut before the snow could enter the house. Te'ijal sighed bored. Everyone lacked sense; she didn't make the difference between the outside and the inside of the house anyway.

"Glad we found him on the shore of Sedona. Or else..." Te'ijal said as Elini watched stoic as another male that accompanied the two was trying to stand on his own feet. So she was right. He got drunk. Drunk enough to not keep his balance and to start laughing like a fool after stumbling over the fold of the carpet. Even the hard floor seemed soft in his current state.

"Nevermind" Rhen said, standing up from the couch after she noticed Lars have given up reading and was looking at her, waiting to hear what she had to say since she made him pay attention. "Forget it" She added, attempting to leave the room.

"What now?" Te'ijal asked, crossing her arms and sitting on an free armchair while Rhen turned on her heel, annoyed already by the many times that question had been asked.

"Party!" John answered promptly being ignored just as promptly.

Like they all didn't know what they all wanted to do. This was irritating.

"Firstly, wait for the sun priest to return" Elini answered the vampress' question before Rhen could.

"Exactly, and after that... we'll see..." That sounded pathetic. Rhen could have slapped herself in the face if no one would have been around; she would have looked stupid indeed. She turned once more in an attempt to leave, but a male arm caught her waist and spun her around.

"How 'bout a kiss?" Eww. John smelled like rum combined with mud.

_**Slap.**_

"Ouch!"

"Stupid drunk jellyfish! Stay away from me!" Rhen said, leaving the room in rage.

John laughed stupidly before turning around and bumping in a certain figure.

_**Slap.**_

"Ouch!! What was that for?"

"You know very well, pirate" Elini started, with her arms crossed. "One more event like this and you'll see that my whip is multifunctional." She added with a death glare in her eyes. John stepped back, trying to get away discreetly from the crazy Veldtonian woman. He then suddenly felt someone stand up behind him.

_**Slap.**_

"Ouch! What did I do now?"

"Watch where you're going, jellyfish; my foot is not the deck you dance on!" Te'ijal snapped her teeth at the pirate as he smiled sheepishly before trying to walk away from the two angry women.

_**Thud. **_

The purple book fell saddened on the floor as John rubbed the spot where the object hit him. Trying to calm down the pain in his sorry head, he turned around in anger to see the thrower of the book. Lars remained stoic at the angry man's expression in front of him and only shrugged his shoulders.

"Oh, sorry; I use to throw things at people when they are being stupid or when there is too much pressure in the air" Lars said simply, leaving the room without retrieving his book from the floor.

* * *

Isn't it just obvious that I am in vacation??

_yes it is.... _

I am ubah-happy I managed to finish chapter 28 ^^. It was really fun to write. But I started writing too many things for my own good. Unfortunately, if I don't start writing right away, the idea gets lost ;-;

Anyway, hope you enjoyed reading~

See ya~


	29. Chapter 29

**Chapter 29**

Slamming the door behind him, Galahad breathed heavily, dropping the bucket lazily and walking in front of the fire. Still shivering, he sniffed and waited for his clothes to dry.

"Your turn tomorrow, boy." He managed to say as Lars nodded to no one in particular, knowing that Galahad wasn't able to see him anyway.

Rolling his eyes, he had to accept his fate; someone had to feed the dragon, right? It was their only transport and the poor thing was already having a hard time with the low temperature. Of course everyone that passed the road was looking irritatingly interested at the giant reptile that found its place curled in the front yard of the house. Rampadel absolutely refused to remain on the shore, and he didn't fit in the house either, so he had to go with staying on the -now frozen- lawn.

Sighing, Rhen watched the snow in silence, as the hot air she just blown blurred the window. It wasn't fun to wait. No, wait. It wasn't fun to wait in a frozen town that would have never expected snow of any sort.

It's been three days and Dameon has not returned yet.

She started thinking that something might have happened to him. Maybe they should go search for him...

Naaaah, he will be fine.

"Will you slimehead stop that?" Yup, he was fine. And he was back. Unfortunately for anyone who disagreed with his presence in this party.

"No, really. I ask this once again and I want a certain answer this time. What no-...?"

"Nothing now, for God's damn sake" Rhen cut Te'ijal off and sniffed annoyed. "We can do barely anything right now. The world is changing before our eyes, the holders of the base of this world are missing, people are going insane and we are useless" Rhen breathed out with rage. That was a snap.

"Blasted Lands haven't changed yet" Dameon announced receiving odd looks.

"Maybe you haven't noticed up until now, but this is real life!" Lars said with harshness in his voice.

_Silence_

That was the truth, yes.

"Let's go to the Blasted Lands" Elini suggested immediately after, out of the blue. "The priest says it's the only place that wasn't affected by the evil." True.

"That might be a good idea in a long time" Lars said, crossing his arms.

Three days. Three days? Just how many hurricanes could someone encounter and avoid in such a short period of time. Really now, hurricanes after hurricanes. The poor reptile which was transporting them was exhausted. Not ever in his life did Rampadel have to put so much effort into flying an apparently not-so-long distance. Good thing the solid, foul earth attenuated his fall. Not.

Blasted Lands were certainly unaffected until now because of their already condition, obviously.

"That was genius; what are we doing here, now?" John asked, sneezing because of the dust.

"Chasing those red dogs, take their skin and sell it on the black market...What?" Te'ijal said briefly, as if that was the most common thing in the world to do.

Ignoring the last affirmation, the smartest thing to do was heading to the nearest town. And nothing else that involved dogs. Although Te'ijal's finger "accidentally" slipped on her bow a few times and some arrows stabbed some of the animals-that-have-so-precious-and-expensive-looking-fur. Of course it was accidentally. And of course everyone believed her.

The next concerning thing you notice at the party if you are to see them all walking towards that town in the Blasted Lands they don't know of, is Lars' expression. He carried a heavy frown on his forehead. He seemed warningly annoyed or angry. But it's impossible to get unnoticed with a frown like _that_ past a person that has been watching you for the past period of time with an insistent gaze.

"Why are you frowning?" Ha, that seemed pretty easy to say in her head. Now do it _for real._

"L-Lars?" The shiver in her voice wasn't planned. At all. And neither Lars not hearing her.

"Lars?" She asked again as he looked at her with an outer-space expression.

"What?"

"I could ask the same thing"

"Humph!" That seemed more forced than it was planned to.

"This is pathetic" Rhen yelled, despite the intent of saving it only for herself. Fail.

"Tell me about it"

"Is there echo in here?"

"How old are you again? Four?"

"You are such an idiot!" Rhen declared with hatred in her voice.

"You are really intelligent, you know. You come to me and start being a smartass for no reason, then you're the one who insults last?" Lars barked.

"I was trying to have a nice talk when you turned it around with... "Rhen let out a desperate sigh and covered her forehead with her palm. "No, know what? I should have figured already by now that there's no use talking to you anymore-..."

"Aaaaand here we go again~" Lars cut her off circling his head around with his arms crossed as Rhen looked at him like he escaped from a sanatorium. "You said you were seventeen? Yes, and just how much time did you spent thinking of that solution: not talking to someone will solve all the problems"

"**.Im-po-ssi-ble!**" Rhen growled, crossing her arms as well as the response was a brief "hah!".

The silence was uncomfortable. And discomfort was the last thing they needed.

"You were right" Rhen said out of the blue as Lars changed his expression and looked at her in confusion.

"What do you mean?" Like he didn't know already.

"I mean-..."

"_Oh, look at that!_ There's the town. Let me show you something, Rhen" A certain hated figure rushed over and grabbed Rhen.

Lars watched frustrated as they walked away from the group.

"_Dameon, let me go" _

"Why don't you Northerners wait up?" Elini asked as Lars puffed.

"_Check out this green water!"_

Lars watched engrossed by the amount of stupidity that scene contained.

"_That water is not green, Dameon!"_

"_Yes it is!"_

Some things just have to be cut off and said later, don't they?

How so annoying!

…...

And finally, this chapter must have confused you just oh so much!

Cheers from Wolphie, the one who will lose her head one of these days.


	30. Chapter 30

**Chapter 30**

That was not a plan. That was a pathetic excuse to run away from duty. And they all knew it very well. Of course; visiting a town that survived so many attacks seemed pretty smart at first, but finding out that those people lived in fear for years and are still doing their "wake up, pray, eat, pray the house doesn't collapse when you shut the door, go to work, pray that you'll survive one more day, come home and pray before going to sleep" routine, it becomes just scary after seeing beyond the people's forced smiles at newcomers.

"This is not a plan" Lars muttered, shaking his head at the cracked ceiling.

"I'll be downstairs if you need anything" The innkeeper said emotionless, attempting to leave the room .

"Wait" Te'ijal said and pulled something out from a pocket. She handed the man a shiny golden coin and watched as he looked saddened at the coin and nodded slightly.

"Aw, that's so nice of you, Te'ijal" Rhen said as the man was still staring at the coin in his palm.

"No it's not. You humans said offering feels good"

"And how do you feel?" John asked, somewhat scared of the answer he might get.

"Like... I just lost one gold penny"

"Your selfishness is edgeless" Galahad said, rolling his eyes.

Rhen sighed and watched the man look at the coin he just earned for nothing. Anyone else's happiness would overflow if he was given this free treat. Even if it was only one coin. But the man was just looking sad at the coin.

Something was to be said. But that would be just rude and Rhen shook the thought off immediately.

"You people must be really sad"

"Northerner!"

"Lars!" Elini and Rhen exclaimed simultaneously.

"Enjoy your room..." The innkeeper said and left the room.

That was not nice. But Lars was right. The people were sadder than they imagined. And that was because they all _expected_ the world to end any moment. They all awaited their death in pain, living their colorless lives and wondering why were they created.

Thais was not what people from other cities praised. It was a ruin. A lifeless place with creatures that were no longer humans. Newspapers were being published only for the journalists to waste their time and people were reading them only to confirm their theories about the end of the world or to feed their already accumulated pessimism. The newspaper was so morbid, you couldn't even look at it. Tragic deaths and accidents were filling every single article and the deceases section of the newspaper was just about as huge as quarter of a page.

Te'ijal's eyes widened in shock at the article she read just minutes ago. That caused a lot of confusion as no one knew what they should be shocked of: the case of death or Te'ijal actually being shocked at it.

"This is so sad to watch; and it's only been one night" Lars said, assured that no one was to disagree with him anymore.

Te'ijal puffed in disgust.

"_'Girl with pneumonia gives away everything she owns and refuses medical assistance'_ . This is the lamest thing to do. If you are sick, why give away everything and choose to live on the streets?"

"Maybe she considered she wouldn't need anything if she was to die" Elini inhaled, thoughtful.

"Human psychology is_ weird_"

It was not a lifestyle those people were living. It was a pandemic disease. A disease which was based on losing every last particle of hope. The suicides were increasing in number every day...

It was pitiful.

The Time Master in town seemed to be their last hope. It was the only person in Thais they won't hear talking about how worthless he is.

"Time cures everything..."

"One way or another" Lars found necessary to add at the old man's analogy.

However, wise phrases were not their goal. The Master was ill. The diagnosis that was given to all of the citizens of Thais was excluded firmly for the man was still hoping to see the Blasted Lands green again and Thais to prosper as it once did. No disease was apparent at first sight but the victim clung to the fact that "he wasn't alright".

"Time is amiss..." He finally said, more like giving a riddle. "... it is being deceived by a beast... a magical clock" He breathed out, grunting.

"What does that mean?" Rhen asked confused, but the man refused to give any more information.

"Clocks with magical properties..." Lars started, thoughtfully, after leaving the building.

"They have the property of letting the owner mess around with time" Dameon completed before Lars gave him a 'how-do-_you_-know-about-that?' look.

That was deep...

People don't fly. And they certainly do not fly with their feet pointed towards the direction they fly in. And they do not fly into walls on purpose AND with such speed. However, that was the atmosphere around the city. People were breaking their bones this way, and not to mention it was awkward to look at, all the attacked citizens seemed pretty desperate for some people who were awaiting their death. Maybe they all imagined it another way?

"This... is not normal" Galahad was the first to talk.

"Maybe, but we might have found what the Time Master was speaking of" John announced, scratching his head with no intention of interfering.

"Don't you two say!" Dameon said, sarcastically before being grabbed and thrown with extreme force and hitting a wall.

Ouch.

Galahad suffered the same fate after trying an offensive attack. Just that seconds later, the monster was still and visible. It was hideous to look at, and it had a clock with a chain around its neck. Just a second was enough to register its appearance. And just a second did it last. Stuck in time? How?

Lars took a few steps back, gasping in a bothered manner.

"Stupid demon trying to catch me!" He mumbled to himself.

"You did that?" Elini asked, getting an idea as Lars nodded. "How much can you hold it?"

"Not very much, as you can see" he said, standing up and dusting himself.

"Alright, do it again"

Shweeesh.

That was one of Te'ijal's arrows.

That happened so fast no one actually knew what happened. Te'ijal was unsure what she really hit, but she hoped Elini's plan worked.

"Good one, Te'ijal, but here comes the fun part." Rhen said as the demon shook its head in anger and eyed the group.

…...

Ouch.

Oh boy, this chapter is so nasty! And the cold I recently got is so nasty!

Cheers from Wolphie~


	31. Chapter 31

**Chapter 31**

How could that be done? The demon Lars continued to call "Aesma" was unstoppable. AND huge. Maybe just as big as the dragon. He was spitting out illogical sentences and an accentuated use of the letter "s". The speech was so interesting and catchy, the group forgot that the intellectual creature was supposed to be slain by them. Actually, the only thing that kept them listening to the quadruped was that in the pile of senseless words they understood "You" and "Killed". And they couldn't manage to understand if they were going to get killed or if they killed something dear to the animal.

But it was in vain.

Lars tensed up when the animal slightly flexed his legs and released the earth underneath his feet. It all seemed to move so slow, rather hundreds of years than less than a second. Lars was about to close his eyes when he saw the big jaws show a collection of sharped teeth before his face.

But just as Aesma was preparing to land and Lars' eyes were closed halfway, a green and purple force stabbed the demon in mid-air and immobilized it on the ground for a good matter of seconds.

The events that followed were more than any mortal can endure. Although it was just as ordinary as a game between two dog cubs, this fight between two magical creatures was just filled with something that made even the wounded citizens of Thais move their attention from their sorrow to the wild battle.

Lars remained with his sight stuck in the direction he last saw those jaws in and took him a while to realize what actually happened. When he finally looked at the two fighting creatures, he felt an immense compassion for the giant reptile they have considered until now only a mere locomotion.

"Watch out!" a woman yelled loudly as Rampadel stepped away from the lying Aesma with a shivery walk towards the alive citizens piled up in one place before everyone started scattering around, avoiding the dragon as much as they could in their messed up run.

Aesma didn't move an inch from where he was left by the dragon. Elini covered her mouth in shock and disgust at the dead demon before looking at Rampadel who was looking desperate and lost around him while trying to stand on his own feet.

Spotting the group, he let out a heartbreaking sound and started struggling to get to his owners with an unbalanced walk while his wings were being dragged on the ground. After a few dozens of meters, the dragon collapsed in the middle of the way, drained.

Rhen was wrong. The _"fun"_ part never actually came, whatever she meant by fun, at that. For they all got severe wounds and the place ended all gory.

Lars attempted to go see Rampadel, but he felt like his cloak was clung to something. Looking over his shoulder, he eyed a pair of purple orbs that were fixed onto the large reptile lying on the ground. Her nails were sunk in his cloak with no intent of letting go.

"Uhm..." Lars said, grabbing an edge of his cloak and pulling as Rhen looked at him then at the cloak and let go with an embarrassed "oh".

That was it.

Unfortunately.

Forced to spend another night in the blasted town, everyone was mentally tired and when the night came, there was more silence in their room than any other one. And no one was sleeping. Just... vegetating or staring trough the window or at a wall.

Apparently, the only one who was occupied with a certain activity was Lars, who held a book in front of his eyes with a bored expression. Until John affirmed that he hasn't flipped a page for more than a half an hour, then he threw the book on the bed and left the room loudly without another word.

"Alright, this was the last drop" Te'ijal said and stood up from the odd position she had on the furthest corner of the bed, making Lars' book fall on the ground. Picking it up, she threw it on Elini's lap before leaving the room and slamming the door behind her.

Lars stumbled over something thick and cursed loud enough to wake up a village. A familiar sound followed his voice as a pair of large green eyes fixed him. Oh...

So it was a tail, the thing he stumbled over.

Sighing, Lars let himself fall and rest his back on Rampadel's side.

"Having a though time?" A sarcastic voice asked with a smirk from somewhere in the darkness.

Lars frowned and only responded with a puff.

"I'll take that as a yes?"

"Do whatever you want. And while you're at it, you might as well leave me alone" Lars said, crossing his arms and staring in the dirt as Te'ijal came out of the darkness and sat beside him.

"Nope, I don't think I will be doing that..." She announced as Lars rolled his eyes as a long silence followed.

"What was that?" Lars asked, looking around alarmed.  
"You heard it too?" The vampire asked receiving a nod from Lars. A shadow sprinted a few meters before their eyes, too fast and too dark to be seen. Te'ijal sighed.

"I don't think it's..."

"I might have an idea what that could be." Lars said as Rampadel raised his head and watched as the green-haired mortal was untying the leather bridles in fast movements.

"You intend to follow _that_?" Te'ijal asked, almost as if she predicted everything.

"Yup, I think I will be doing that" Lars responded ironically as Te'ijal crossed her arms and smirked while Lars was climbing Rampadel's back. Seeing the vampire's expression, Lars sighed defeated as Te'ijal clapped her palms happily, something unusual for her, thing that made Lars think for a second if he could push her off the dragon while flying. Nah...

The thick darkness wasn't helping at all, as Lars almost lost the track of the figure a couple of times. Taking back his previous thought of pushing Te'ijal off the dragon, he concluded that in this situation, she was pretty useful.

After a deeper examination, Te'ijal agreed that the runner was looking extremely similar to their priest companion.

"Because it _is_ him!"

"I did not ask you. I only did an affirmation"

"But you just-..."

"Shush! I cannot see him anymore" Te'ijal ended the conversation as Lars sighed exasperated before looking around desperately for the figure. A blinding light started blurring their sight as Lars pulled the dragon's bridle reflexively. They started decreasing in altitude warningly fast. Rampadel didn't hesitate to respond to Lars' orders and enfolded his wings, letting himself fall perfectly perpendicular with the earth, head pointed downwards.

Te'ijal could feel her stomach run up in her throat while falling but decided not to make any sound. However, she did not know what the human was planning to do and once she saw the earth a few dozens of feet underneath, she sighed and sealed her eyes shut only to feel a sudden stop which brought her stomach back in its place.

Unfolding his wings, Rampadel landed on the earth elegantly and without one sound, fact that surprised both Lars and Te'ijal.

"That was a little bit extreme..." Lars whispered as the vampire gave him a straight face.

"You think?"

"Now what do you say about that?" Lars asked, crossing his arms in victory as Te'ijal still had her eyes pointed towards the scene that has just occurred and finished, not wanting to accept or say anything just after Lars' question.

"So what are you going to do about it?"

"Go to the Sun Shrine and force my luck once again, if the Oracle doesn't believe me, then so be it, I won't ever interfere again." He shot back promptly as Te'ijal slid down the dragon and started reflecting on what to do.

"You are as welcome to come as you are to go back to the others..." Lars added as Te'ijal raised her eyes, waiting to decide upon something. "I just hope the others won't be following, they could be a problem"

"They won't." Te'ijal blurted out as Lars looked at her with somewhat of a hope. "I left Elini a message, I just hope she gets the idea; she can be very... ignorant sometimes"

"Did you mean to say stupid?" Lars asked with somewhat of a straight face, raising an eyebrow.

"I never said that!"

Elini opened the book several minutes after Te'ijal left, instinctively.

_'DO NOT DARE FOLLOW! AND KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT!' _

"Is that a threaten?" She mumbled to herself and closed the book before tossing it on what was supposed to be Lars' bed. "I had enough of that vampire's hissy fits" She acted, saying it out loud, making sure she got heard by everyone.

"Calm down, Elini, probably she and Lars just have to get some a-" Rhen said with a sigh.

"Where... is the priest?" John asked, pointing with his sight at Dameon's former bed, only for his question to remain unanswered.

_'I hope you're having fun, vampire!'_ Elini thought, covering her forehead with her palm.

Lars was indifferent.

Although he should have been happy that someone _could_ and _was_ helping him, he had grown to remain inert in most of the situations. Te'ijal was just someone who came with him to rid him of the "loneliness" feeling he always carried on his back lately. After all, once he would reach the Sun Shrine, his job would be done. Either if the Oracle believed him, either if she didn't, he could live his life on, in different ways, that is. He felt so selfish.

_'We could have at least taken something to eat...'_ He reflected, sighing and looking at Te'ijal, who didn't show any signs of fatigue. After the long trip from The Blasted Lands to the Northern Empire, food would have been welcome. Considering that they left Rampadel to the party since it would have been not nice of them to leave the group without their dragon, stranded on an island. Or... it was that Lars doubted the fact that the others could have managed to find a supplies vessel like the one they found.

He was going ego-ish again. _Of course they could manage! You aren't the smartest living creature on Earth, you know?_

_'Am I...?'_ Lars shot back to his self conscience.

"What is this?" Te'ijal asked almost shocked, once the cave that was connecting the Northern Empire with the land of Aveyond was exited.

A long silence followed as Te'ijal and Lars could only look around the places with their mouth wide open, not being able so say or react in any way.

"This is what happens when we, humans, wait too much" Lars explained gravely as Te'ijal didn't bother to respond the true affirmation.

…...

Woot! YESS! I am done with this one. TOO.

I made a habit out of this. Hopefully, MWWDS will be finished soon enough...

Only for me to start yet another fic called "remember the magic" hmm.. .RTM... sounds more like rhythm XD Anyway, I talk too much

I am done and hope you enjoyed this chapter too.

Cheers~ ^^


	32. Chapter 32

**Chapter**** 32**

Three party members disappearing without leaving a track, all in one day. That's a record. As if almost the bad luck was following them every day and night.

Where were they heading to, anyway? That was a good question, that intrigued Rhen in the moment she came up with it. Meaning seven hours after they left the cursed town of Thais. That was some slow reaction.

Nonetheless, her question didn't need to be answered, but turned into an answer. So she grabbed the bridle in John's hands and pulled with all her might, changing their direction.

"Hey! What are you doing?" John's voice sounded so squeaky and frustrated, almost like a kid's when his ice cream was being stolen.

As much as Elini tried not to have any reaction at the pirate's childish behavior, she could not and ended up almost dropping the compass into the ocean.

"Why are we heading south?" She asked tactically.

"Because that is the best place to do something stupid." Rhen responded as tactically.

_'Are you going to do something stupid, northerner?'_ As fun as it seemed to ask, Elini had to restrain herself once again to say anything. Why? Even she didn't know.

Lars _could_ believe that was really happening. And, surprisingly enough, Te'ijal could too. Because all seemed to be so perfectly planned, it all fit perfectly with a harmonious "click". Just like a jigsaw puzzle.

"I don't like this."

"I don't care what you don't like."

That was the final conversation between the vampire and the human that remained final for a long period of time. The silence of the places was just so forceful it _made _ you keep your teeth clenched together and not say a word.

All the place was now deserted and empty and the negative aura just squashed any last tint of anything positive. It was not a happy sight.

What was intriguing about the whole panorama was that the sun was shining from time to time between the heavy gray clouds but the whole view was as dark as it would have been without the sun.

The colors have run out of the land of Aveyond and left back numerous shades of gray. The entrance to the Teacup Town was now blocked by a bunch of wooden planks crossed in X shape. In front of the blocked entrance was a very explicative wooden signpost which had the scratched word "CLOSED" on it with sloppy letters.

"Did we ever leave the Blasted Lands?" Te'ijal eventually asked, after passing the closed Teacup Town.

Lars didn't bother to answer, but just reduced his respond to a unoriginal shrug. Only because there was nothing more to be said.

The fact that it started to rain added even more of a morbid tint to the hidden land between the mountains.

Lars looked up at the rare clouds with stupor and matched the event that was currently occurring with what one of the guardians one told him about the land of Aveyond. Oh yes, it was Marine who told him; she was complaining about all the "useless" stuff Talia taught her about Aveyond and it sounded like this:

"_It has never rained in Aveyond and it __**should**__ never rain. Because the water that soaks the land of Aveyond means that it has been discovered or that the bases of the world are shaky. Or whatever that means." _

Ignoring the last part being not so intellectual as the rest of the speech, Lars sighed briefly, walking on to his way to the Sun Shrine, with Te'ijal's confused look laying on him.

A sudden hiss made Lars look up instantly, but not getting the chance to react in ay way, he was grabbed by his wrist and pushed behind a collection of stones. Before he could protest, Te'ijal shushed him, pointing at a large group of creatures that were walking lazily, followed by a bunch of animals.

"What are they doing here?" Lars asked more to himself but received a puzzled look from Te'ijal. With a hand gesture, he shook it away and pointed at the group of creatures.

Looking very similar to Aveyond gryphons, the creatures present there had black feathers and fur and possessed wings, in comparison with the ones original from Aveyond.

Getting a better glimpse of the enchained animals that were being guided around by the black monsters, Te'ijal hit Lars with her elbow and made him point his attention over to the six feral beings. Regretting that she had done that, Te'ijal grabbed Lars' sleeve and pulled him back behind the rocks before he could sprint and be seen.

"Are you stupid, human?" she hissed at him.

"But those are the guardians, are you blind?"

"And what do you intend to do to all those black, mammal-legged birds that surround them?"

"But..!"

"Don't screw everything right now!"

Lars huffed, ready to reply with immaturity, but his attention was centered to another group of creatures that came carrying a very large, cubical object which was covered by thick fabric. The creatures were resembling human females with white hair and large black wings growing from their back.

Neither did Lars or Te'ijal want to know what was inside the carried object, although they speculated and desperately hoped they were wrong.

Although the two groups of creatures were moving relatively fast, it took more than fifteen minutes for them to get to a safe distance, when Lars and Te'ijal could simply leave the uncomfortable hideout behind the sharp stones. But neither of them left.

Te'ijal sniffed once loudly and yawned lazily as Lars threw her a death glare. She just shrugged and climbed with a fast movement on one of the massive boulders they have been hiding behind crossing her arms and contemplating.

"Come on." She said simply, looking over her shoulder and forcing Lars to stand up.

Truth to be said, Lars did not want to go to the Sun Shrine anymore. He had an uneasy feeling about the whole situation, although he mostly predicted what they were going to find. Ruins, maybe? Even the road, that sometimes took him five to ten minutes to cover, seemed endless. The stairs seemed to have multiplied overnight and the abyss in his right and left never looked so deep before. Almost as if no one and nothing wanted them to visit the Sun Shrine.

_'I do not have any intent of going there'_ Lars continued to affirm to himself. Despite that, he did not show any signs of wanting to go back. Maybe because Te'ijal was looking at him with a look rather threatening. That alone kept him going.

But he did not know when the events occurred so fast, yet they were there, heading back from what they suspected as being the Sun Shrine. He had no idea.

Neither did he know when that mud puddle appeared in front of him right after he tripped over a stone.

Te'ijal, however, seemed to have an idea; she was laughing under her breath.

…...

Huh... Well, it seems that this chapter was finished long ago, but I simply forgot about it. Hehe... oops.

Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed it!

Till the next update,

Cheers~


	33. Chapter 33

**Chapter 33**

When exactly is everything going so bad, that even in a critical situation, the panic is turned into morbid neutrality that could easily cost a large number of lives? As well as fear could inflict in someone's bones, smoothly and without any physical pain, a life could have a moment of uncontrolled panic, without realizing what is happening in the interval the panic attack takes place, but be left with deep scars that remain imprinted on the side of the brain, under the skull, like a tattoo.

As a flash of light cut through the heavy, foul-smelling air, either missing, either hitting its target, one loud cry left the throat of a large animal expressing more shock than the sorrow in its left wing. Desperate wing flaps were trying to keep the weight at the current altitude, but obviously failed, since the power of ascension was just reduced to half by the thin arrow.

While their muscles were contracting and their pupils dilating, the adrenaline rush made everyone feel deaf and dumb when the strong leather bridle was pulled with such force that it snapped in half in John's hands, leaving the dragon room to breathe, maybe for his last few seconds of life. In a second of crisis, screams could do nothing but exhaust the remained strength and energy, that doesn't have a fixed scope afterward, anyway. Looking with stupor at the broken object, Rhen's eyes fled to the place they would follow to crash in and after sealing her eyes shut, the only words that could be heard were Galahad's

"**Are you retarded?"**

…..

A winged creature was about to crash somewhere a bit further to the south. Watching the creature spinning in the air, a pair of almost identical kids closed their eyes and let their heads down, grabbed each other's hand and started reciting a small prayer in unison.

The sound of trees being ripped out of their roots and then collapsing woke up the whole village, as a foggy cloud of dust made the crash scene quite noticeable. While a male voice screamed in the distance, the twins looked up and stopped from their prayer only for a second, before returning to it again, finishing it and sighing, hopeful.

"This is horrible!"

"Aaargh!"

"_It's broken!"_

"This is really horrible!"

"Move out of the way before he loses it."

"What?"

"This is truly horrible!"

"Elini, _stop_ mumbling **nonsense** and aid us!" Rhen ordered, as the white-haired woman turned at her with a calm, yet desperate face. At a moment of memory loss, she sighed and stood up to help Rhen and Galahad aid the wounded pirate.

"Maybe Lars and the two guardians were right..." Elini breathed to herself, not looking at the surprised sword singer. Rhen inhaled, avoiding thinking too much into detail, flashbacking to the sleepless nights that altered her mind.

_'HA! I told __**you**__ so!'_

Was that Lars' self-consciousness just now, mocking her? No way! Lars was probably long _dead_ by now...

What? What was that she just thought?

_'Yeah, you don't know where I am right now!'_ She sighed deeply, as her hands began shaking slightly and her muscles starting to hurt. Having a mental conversation with Lars' self-consciousness seemed normal to her at that time.

_'Remember that kiss back on the Northern Isle?' _

'A k-... Yes. I... remember.'

_'That should have been enough, then.'_ What? _'Why did I and Te'ijal disappear in the __**same**__ night Dameon disappeared? Ooooh! Maybe he __**killed**__me!" _Her eyes went dull.

'Yeah... What... What if he's _dead_?'

"Hold it, hold it!"

"One, two, three, _up_."

Rhen blinked at the gathered villagers that came to help. Sniffing, she reflexively wiped the blurry sight away along with one tear. Waiting for another two or three minutes, sitting in the middle of the crowd and not being noticed by anyone, Rhen stood up and looked around weakly, with a rather puzzled look on her face.

Two pairs of identical eyes followed a certain target with attention, then looked into eachother with hopelessness. Te girl sighed and pointed with her head toward the village as her twin brother just muttered a _"We're magnets to disasters."_ while nodding and heading for the village.

Collapsing on the burnt grass, Rhen sobbed lightly with a stoic expression on her face, eye fluid streaming down her cheeks. Like that could ever solve anything. Everything in her mind was tangled and messy, and she gave up putting order in her thoughts since one big question was yelling clearly and loudly **"What happened to Lars?"**, eclipsing everything else she could be thinking of.

No "maybe" could calm her down and give her a rational explanation, for after every maybe, she felt like she was fooling herself. More than necessary.

How long has she been waiting?

Three hours? Four?

Her eyes being already dried, she sat up numbly and attempted to walk away, but found no force to walk with, collapsing back in a sitting position. _"Wait. Just a bit longer."_Okay. She didn't have anything to do anyway, since after all this time no one noticed her missing.

Has it been another hour? Or maybe two? Rhen mustn't have started counting. Reaching one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three and losing the track once or twice sounded stupid only when you thought of it.

"Alright, I waited, where's my reward?" Rhen asked out loud the inner voice that adviced her so kindly. She was clearly losing it.

"_Who's there?"_ A faint voice asked. Rhen was not going to answer, but stopped shuffling the dry leaves under her to hear any other stupid rhetorical questions.

She heard footsteps and slowly spun around while standing up, grabbing her sword and remaining hidden behind a tree. There were two pair of legs, as she could tell. And since she never saw a talking horse, she deduced that there were two people. Gosh. Her mind started acting retarded.

"_You'll get yourself killed!"_

"_Shht!"_

One pair of feet stopped advancing.

The singing dry leaves and faint whispers betrayed the current position of the other pair of feet, as Rhen clenched her fist around the hilt of the sword.

"Who's being a smartass?"

"Die, vermin!"

_Silence_.

Rhen dropped her sword and gazed in awe at the person before her.

The green-haired male had an awfully shocked expression. Looking down when he heard a desperate and relieved whisper _"Lars!_", he received a tight, sudden hug. Before the shadow of one thought he might have had made its appearance, a pair of dry lips landed on his with brutality as his neck was being grabbed and pulled lower in order for a lavender head to reach his.

The two-second connection was soon broken as suddenly as it started, leaving one flustered-looking green-haired male in stupor.

"Don't get used to that!" Rhen almost yelled.

_**Slap!**_

Te'ijal appeared with a confused look on her face while Rhen's palm was just hitting soundly Lars' cheek with force and grabbing her sword before leaving with a "humph!".

"Oh, God..." Lars breathed, before collapsing on the dry leaves.

"Wow..." Te'ijal muttered, turning her back at the fainted sorcerer and following Rhen.

…...

This was sooooooooo depressing at the beginning and sooooo random at the end.


	34. Chapter 34

**Chapter 34**

"If there is a way to die, then the honorable one would be the best option."

No. If there is a way to die, the best option would be not doing it in any manner.

Although the feeling that they will all eventually die wasn't scaring them anymore the way it would have done a couple of months ago, Galahad's confidence that what they were all doing was honorable was just plain wrong. Because killing yourself while trying to save the humanity and failing lamentably was not honorable.

Neither was staring hopelessly at the swirling water from a far away shore, awaiting for some sort of locomotion that would never fall from the sky.

Elini sat sleepily on the gray sand and watched the empty pier, not actually expecting any boat or ship to sail there, neither to pass by the _haunted town_. Watching the emptiness, she felt a strong smell coming from behind her; something that resembled burnt skin. The smell made her think that the dragon burnt something, but the last time she checked, he was sleeping.

Although the southerner didn't have any idea where from or why the foul smell was reaching and taunting her so annoyingly, she didn't have the stamina to question whoever was burning what was burning, if someone was burning something and why was the individual doing that stupid thing, so she didn't move a muscle right away.

But she could have sworn that she heard Galahad bossing Lars around to help him construct what they liked to call a raft but looked like an oversized askew kindergarten arts and crafts class project that was done by a four-years-old. That thing wasn't going to float more than three seconds, once in water.

"Uh-oh..."

The silver-haired woman turned around abruptly, envisaging another problem that _she_ had to solve all by herself. Another thing that only her "grown-up" mind could solve; her mind was _apparently_ more experienced than Rhen's younger one and Te'ijal's currently learning one, and _clearly_ superior to the men's. She didn't want any sort of brain challenge in the half-hibernation state her mind was found in, but that was exactly the thing she received. As if things weren't going bad enough.

"I am most certain that this isn't normal. Even for a vampire." Elini said stopping before the trio, grabbing Te'ijal's arm and showing it; a thick smoke was rising from the vampire's white skin under the slightly shocked gazes. Te'ijal remained inert as she was pushed brutally under a shade of a near tree as yet another problem arose.

Almost like the gods, instead of softening their already heavy burden, were not only making it heavier but also harder for them to carry on.

"The sunscreen must have worn off." Te'ijal said blankly as Galahad exhaled, tensely.

"It's only two hours until noon; we cannot finish the raft in such short time-..."

"You mean the giant pan-pipe?" Rhen cut Lars off, looking at the wooden object which sat on the shore. She then looked at Lars, who only sighed while looking at the truth in the ugly, giant pan-pipe, not caring anymore if it would be destroyed by some divine force.

He had this fear before, but looking at it from a distance, the uselessness of the object was obvious.

"That thing is not going to float." added Elini, happy that she finally said what she meant to say a long time ago.

A larger mass of water pushed by the wind covered the raft in a cold and refreshing hug and then the many hands of the sea gripped the tied up pieces of wood as the many fingers dragged the raft into the sea. In a matter of seconds, what was supposed to be a raft was disappearing under the weight of the water, leaving all but eye rolls coming from the women.

The dragon's wing was broken, as the arrow cut directly trough his joint, so he wasn't able to fly anymore. That was something anyone could say. However, his feet were in perfect condition, so the only environment he couldn't master was the air.

"No." Lars breathed, expressing his disagreement trough his mimic, as well.

"We didn't ask you for permission, northerner -the dragon isn't yours, by the way-, we told you what we are going to do." Elini said, frowning and reminding the group how much she knew about how many breeds of dragons, since the majestic creatures once overpopulated the Southern Empire.

The dragon was clearly a hybrid. Between a Gunkal dragon and something that seemed a Felnetal dragon. Elini never stopped saying that the Tehyor breed, which was a combination between the two other renown breeds, was very rare and powerful and how proud she was that they possessed something as sacred as a Tehyor.

Elini's dragon tales were interesting and mostly useless.

She always told them about all kinds of breeds -Coropsite, Gunkal, Relnav, Kukunrogis, Bartenliador, Felnetal, Dednok, Myripi, Tehyor, Crudalis, Noywera, Worla, Uturugis and many, many more- and about all qualities and environments breeds survive in. Apparently, the Gunkal dragon was a sea creature -no wings, floppy tail, duck-like digital membrane and dark colored leather skin- and the Felnetal dragon was a long-distance dragon, often used for fighting -very large wings, long, slender tail, rock-solid bone structure, thorn-sharp scales covering the entire body and overall solid structure-, both having qualities that Veldtonians seemed to want to combine.

"In a sweet-bitter success, the Tehyor dragon has the digital membrane, can swim, but cannot breathe underwater, ability we have no use of, at this moment." Elini finished her oration about the large reptiles once again, giving what she thought to be enough reasons for Lars.

To her dismay, though, she dried her mouth for nothing, as Lars was clearly not going to stay behind when she and the others will be leaving on the back of Rampadel. Or they could have dragged him forcefully...

Wrapped in the cloaks of both Lars and Galahad, Te'ijal could not ignore the tension inside Rhen's muscles as she looked around. Frowning behind another thin fabric that covered her eyes, the vampress poked Rhen's back and couldn't have no fear for the sword singer to fall off the dragon's back and into the ocean.

Rhen later calmed down and shot Te'ijal a glare. But could not restrain herself from continuing to look around the surface of the water tensely, fearing that vile creatures resided under those deep waters and were seeing the dragon passing their territory and waiting for enough pressure to be applied upon their poor human minds until they twist before they could strike and drag them to the underneath depths of the waters. Where Indra would turn them into water then drink them.

Elini laughed when Rhen asked her of the possibility of the first part of her story being true and told the lavender-haired teen that she was being amusingly paranoid. She did not tell Elini about the Indra drinking them up part; even she realized it was beyond stupid when she thought about it thorougher.

A cold wind reached their bones, they could see land ahead of them, after more than five hours. Rampadel was starting to get tired as his breaths were shorter and deeper, though he surprised everyone with the long distance he swam without failing.

To everyone, especially Elini and excepting Te'ijal, the Southern Empire created somewhat of a void inside them, just between their lungs and in the place of their stomach.

It was arid. Arid in the cold way.

…...

I somehow managed to mess this up. Cheers for me.

Enjoy the chappie~ ^^


	35. Chapter 35

**Chapter 35**

_Magic does not exist_.

Galahad was wronger than he's ever been in his entire life. Especially now. Though Lars continued repeating to him to "be grateful for not being hit by a holy blast, message that he angered the druids and gods" everytime the paladin dared to insult the best ability the sorcerer possessed.

What could change his mind?

The question seemed to propagate to the depths of the earth, searching for an answer. Not even the enchanted bells under a great mass of stalactites and stalagmites that were sure to hide their unearthly ring knew the answer to the outrageous question. A liquid sound echoed in the large, underground chamber and blend with the clinking bells as a mass of water took shape in the translucent-blue female figure, stepping out of her element and onto the cold ground, approaching the high throne with a reverence.

"These silly fools!" A low voice roared, amused by the whispers of the metallic, sparkling cylinders that broke the death silence alongside with the dripping water before the hooded figure turned to eye the fluid, blue female shape. A guttural sigh escaped a throat as one gloved hand swung from one side of the throne to another, bored by the daeva's respectfulness. Indra remained silent for another half a minute, until the same gloved fist hit the arm rest in a way that made the thin metal tubes hanging around the room vibrate slightly.

"Speak already, demon!" The hooded figure ordered as the demoness showed no reaction, eying the lord in an affronting manner.

"They are approaching, sire. Agas is leading the other demons to rid of the useless creatures that guard the girl." The fist clenched on the edge of the arm rest.

"Idiot!" Indra blinked, her fluid facial expression remaining unchanged. "Who gave you the permission to give orders under my name? And stupid orders as well." The rough voice chanted, angrily as the fist hit the armrest in a hateful blow before a sigh was heard. "Daeva, I want you to cancel all the useless preparations you have made and send the demons back in their previous positions."

Indra clenched her teeth and puffed slightly, holding back her anger.

"Yes, lord." She curtsied and spun around with a swoosh and returned to the pond, stepping on it in an angry manner, almost as if she wanted to **break** the water. That master of theirs thought he knew absolutely everything; that got really bothersome sometimes.

"Is there something bothersome, demon?"

But Indra was already retired within the water, flying gently and invisibly along and through it, reaching the other face of the earth within minutes. Her plan did not work; Ahriman didn't catch the bait and will eventually notice that one druid was missing without any chance of being found. He will then capture her in that place without a start and without an end, forced to remain there from one to three eternities, until the dratted gadget breaks again. She was the one responsible with all the stupid actions the other demons took, yet she could not order them what to do and what not.

Eyeing a gull flying peacefully over the calm sea breeze, she felt something that humans called jealousy -when you feel bad for someone else's gain and good for the individual's loss-. The creature had a heart and so many more organs it could not survive without; why should an entity with unlimited life and no soul be jealous of such limited beings?

Indra grimaced and watched as a transparent, roughly-shaped spear cut trough the body of the bird, continuing its way to the sky and taking the bird's life with it. Relaxing her pointed finger, the demon grinned a wicked smile at the ice object she just released from the depths of the ocean.

Now the bird that has fallen before her feet must have been jealous of its killer still walking the earth, with the intent of visiting the Dreamland and receiving report from the grand mass of water that the foolish former priest of the Sun was at the lair and found of her plan.

That would turn out to be troublesome.

Dameon watched one light blue orb sitting on one of the seven pedestals. He didn't intend to turn in the water demoness right away to his father and have her locked inside an ancient weapon for eternity. There were orbs on each of the pedestals. There were other useful chores he could use the water entity for. After Ahriman would take revenge on everyone and everything that caused him trouble, huge amounts of power would still be flowing trough his veins.

_Just what use did __an old buzzard like him have of such amounts of power?_

Dameon picked up the orb as it shined in the poor light that reached the inside of the room. He received eye rolls from Indra. The stupid demon didn't know what she was playing with. She knew that he knew. And that ruined all his preparations and he had doubts that his father would take him for granted.

That stupid, foul-mouthed demoness! _She would have been useless if she wasn't a demon._

Oh, that was bad.

"Say goodnight, human."

The orb smashed on the ground.

Calling for two neeveranes to clean up the smashed glass, the Sun Demon watched carefully as the blind, winged creatures disposed of the shattered orb in the bottomless abyss. He then took care to rid himself of the possible betrayers and then throw their corpses into the abyss, alongside with the glass.

Now the two oolguns that used to guide the soprano-voiced dark angels were looking at Dameon with somewhat of a fearful look. But that was no reason of worry. For the creatures that resembled black, wingless griffins spoke the same language as the birds.

Grinning at his shimmering intelligence, Dameon left the room, slipping between the occasional neeveranes -that seemed a bit affected by the lack of two of their kind- and avoided eye contact with their oolgun company pets that also leaded their way, which would most probably sense the uneasiness upon his mind.

When he gets his father's throne, he will rid the massive hallways of these pesty creatures that do nothing good and are inefficient, due to the blindness of the neeveranes and the muteness of the oolguns.

Skating happily on the marble floor, he almost reached the throne with a tint of nervousness. Ahrirman was warned that he arrived.

...

Oop. Behind the scenes. *hiss*

Evil Dameon and *hiss*

Human Indra *hiss*

Noh! This story is so twisted my brain hurts. What is a good thing is that I'll probably update pretty soon, since I already have a start of the next chapter (I wanted to make a mix between this one and the next one, but I ended up splitting them apart in two different circumstances); that would not have been fun, since all the action wouldn't have made any sense. It doesn't anyway, imagine if I'd have mixed it. It would be a huge porridge.

Well, then.

Cheers from Wolphie.


	36. Chapter 36

**Chapter 36**

The wind was chilly enough to empty one's soul. Overall, the atmosphere was filled with a thick smoke that was hard to breathe in and a penetrable, insupportable smell that seemed to invade the lungs in a painful manner. The palm trees that once populated the shores of the Empire were no more alive, replaced by what it looked like a bunch of logs with some straws on top. Miserable, rascal creatures populated the shores, hiding behind the palm trees when they felt looked at and drinking the salted sea water, getting sick after their own thirstiness crisis and chewing on the remains of the giant scorpion shells, in a calm despair.

Entirely, the sight was so depressing it sent shivers down the spines of the watchers. Rhen was sure she felt it. At least when she saw that once-hyena running away on its skinny legs when the group approached. That looked beyond depressing.

What lied beyond the mass of gray soil was merely a hypothesis. No one actually believed that the women of Veldt, who were the successors of a large group of Amazonians that once inhabited the Demon Caves beneath the Southern desert, were thrown out of their underground refuge by some demonic force that lived and grown in there, free and fusystatic, no shape and all, and managed to release the worst nightmares the human kind can think of. As silly and retarded as it sounded, that was what all of the history books in the Veldt History museum were quoting.

Unfortunately, they were true. But humans always seemed to cling to their own beliefs, despite the guidance of the divinities and seemingly, having that Sedonian attitude -maybe even French-ish accent- when they say smugly "Eey hav tzu see eet tzu believah eet!". That hurt the brain of any living creature that possessed one.

"_If something happens, go to Dreamland."_

Lars remembered so many times how Marine told him that. What did not follow her order-advice was _"and take whoever you can with you, everyone, if possible."_ but their silent conversation was interrupted by the sobbing of Lillian that was noticed by Rhen and came over. So many times he wished to go to the Dreamland, but his ration kept him in place when thinking of the possibility that things might work out. Although he mostly knew he was fooling himself for the sake of the others and mostly Rhen.

"We're out of water." Rhen said, placing the water bottle back in the bag.

"Not that it's unimaginably hot and we get dehydrated like raisins." Lars added, matter-of-factly not actually seeing the importance of the situation.

A crowd of skinny hyenas was following them for a time now. The dirty animals were walking shyly a few dozens meters behind them at the group's pace, an unusually slow speed for animals their rank, hoping that they would drop anything, not caring if it was edible or not. Galahad turned around every once in a while, making sure the animals were not approaching at a dangerous distance. Although that turning around of his was pointless, as the hyenas were backing off ten meters every time he spun around and eyed them. He eventually stopped doing it, at Te'ijal's demand.

A slight shimmer caught Rhen's eye. When she looked over her shoulder, the only thing visible was a pile of moving sand that soon disappeared. Whatever that sparkling something was, it must have been at least the size of a human being, if not larger, and gave the feeling that it was spying on them. A very uneasy feeling, that enlarged the void inside Rhen's stomach.

"This,..." Lars murmured, looking lost at the modest cave entrance that led to darkness. _"I will not enter."_ was the unsaid continuation. He would have looked like a dope saying that then and there. "Sinking right at the shore", like some would say, looking at his lack of courage.

They've beaten up two daevas, why should this be a problem? That was something Te'ijal would say.

"Because there are five daevas left that we'll have to face at the same time alongside with their leader. Sounds fun, right, Galahad?" Rhen asked, sarcastically, looking at the paladin that only rolled his eyes.

"I don't care about fun as long as it's for honor."

"There is no honor in getting killed." Lars sniffed, glaring at the muddy armor beside him.

"Please, northerners." Elini said, tiredly. "I have three husbands waiting for me in Veldt and one other man waiting for me in a town infested by plague. Let us finish this already!" She looked at the cave entrance and then at the group.

Could Rhen hear what everyone else was thinking? Noh, she must be hallucinating.

_Are we going in already? Of course we are going; we are going straight to committing suicide. Shut up, you foolish boy, what we are doing is honorable. ARE WE GOING IN ALREADY?_

"Fine!" Rhen almost shouted, looking at Elini in an annoyed manner, rolling her eyes at her brand new hallucinating skill before covering her forehead. Forced under the pressure of the other's demands that they stay behind one more night because of her bad psychological mood, she snapped again.

In that short second of lack of brain, she really considered stealing Lars' Cloak of Death -which she had no idea how to get since _she_ had it sewed on the inside of his regular cloak at his demand- and running away in the Wildwoods or the Ashwood forest or even Thornkeep, just far away from that place and live forever, assured that the magical cloak could keep you alive forever.

It would be no fun to live on and see the others wither away and remain alone, without any successors.

Wonder how she would look at 362 years old. She decided that after her 362th birthday, she would take the cloak off and let herself drop dead.

She was becoming stupider by the minute.

_Is this really happening to us? We came all the way here, human, you do not think of giving up right now, do you? No, but maybe you should wait. Shut up, everybody, we are going inside NOW! Why is this cave so empty? It is not, there's an imp. It was once filled with these creatures, only one is worrysome, northerners. Where are we going? Straight ahead, there is the Stronghold temple. No way. There is the entrance. I can't look at it, Lars. Come on, this is it!_

_This is it, Rhen. This is it!_

"What? The end?" She sobbed, looking at Lars who only sighed and kicked one other imp with his foot.

Could he read minds, too?

Ouch.

Another four imps surrounded the group. Galahad kicked them all, leading the way to the furthermost temple. It seemed miles away. Nautical miles, even. Almost as the gods and druids didn't want them to enter it. A divine sign, that is. Rhen was sure about it at first, but reconsidered her statement when remembering that _all_ the druids were just those few miles away.

They were going to save the world.

They were going to be heroes and be famous and she will marry some noble or some prince that will be only after the money she will receive for her brave deed. Maybe even Lars, if he asks her.

Yes.

They were going to save the world.

But what if they didn't?

"Can I stay behind?" Elini asked, looking at the grand gate.

"No." Te'ijal responded.

"Okay."

…...

This is mostly psychological.

Wooties.

Two.

We've got only two chappies left. Wooties again.

I love the story. I have so many ideas yaaaay

Alright. I will go now and do my homework, because I dunno how, but I always leave homework behind wirting stoeies if I have inspiration right in that moment. (I can give up even if I am in a middle of the shower and come over and write the darn chapter!)

Cheers~


	37. Chapter 37

**Chapter 37**

_This is it, Rhen. This is it. _

What?

"Shut up, boy." Galahad ordered, stabbing the sorcerer's stomach with his elbow. Lars talked too much for his own good. And his loud voice echoed trough the Stronghold Temple, awakening the walls. In a very threatening manner. Elini sighed, troubled, taking the lead and shoving the golden metal door open, retrieving the key and muttering a "Move already".

Neither of them wanted to think. There was nothing to think about. Only observe and note events that occurred.

Rhen rushed her pace and overcame Elini, taking the lead. She could not look on either sides of her; there was a bottomless abyss and she could suddenly start to feel height-sick. That wasn't to be very nice, for the whole world to refer to her as "the-hero-who-threw-up-before-even-facing-the-evil". So she only looked straight ahead, noticing only the odd creatures before her. The mass of wyverns stopped their activities and slid aside their way, keeping somewhat of a distance. The fence of dark blue wyverns that conjured their left and right was broken from time to time by some tall females that grew black feathery wings on their backs and wore long dresses to match their flowing hair.

From time to time, a wyvern was extending its long neck, as if to bite, but retreated shortly after when being noticed. It was horrible.

"I don't like the look of this." Lars stated, looking at the large entrance that was blocked by a large group of nightmare angels and wyverns.

"Shht!" Te'ijal ordered, looking at the crowd of creatures that started to shuffle and move out of the way, positioning theirselves on either sides.

Not nice.

What followed was a blur. Inside the castle were neeveranes walking around, with their small, black wings and blindfolded, holding the chains that ended in collars around the wingless black griffins' necks. _Lars heard about those: neeveranes were blind female creatures and oolguns were black wingless and griffin-like. _The road to the throne was longer than an eternity and the large door that blocked their way was heavier than 1000 pounds. Not even Galahad alone could push it; not even them all could.

A neeverane that pushed the massive door open with one hand put Galahad to shame. As if things weren't going bad enough. They blurred even more.

_A glimpse of the guardians in their animal forms looking absolutely miserable._ One white tiger was struggling to get free from the chains but failed everytime and one brown wolf was throwing threatening looks at Rhen. The animals were all transported to another chamber.

_Some magical rings from a set of bells hanging all around the room breaking the silence..._ Four demons were there, _but Indra wasn't_. And on a throne was a shadow.

_Dameon was sitting next to Ahriman. _He was almost looking defiantly while his father started speaking in a manner that made everyone turn pale. Options over options and threatens over threatens. He seemed to have been talking forever. Elini noticed that while Ahriman was talking, his troops were gathering around in the chamber or poking their heads out of the numerous window-ish holes that the high room possessed, which was something worrysome.

That was to be another threat. Considering the option where they were to be outnumbered. And die a miserable death _or_ if the masters of evil are in good moods, be locked forever in a dark, deep dungeon filled with the bones of the ones who died after screaming their life out of their lungs, asking for help. _Yelling_ for help. But no one ever heard them.

That was not a nice option.

_Eternity_ without aging -and without wondering how would she look at 362 years old-, endless amounts of power, her friends being safe, living with Dameon and his father and ruling the world under the dark wings of justice and treasure. Lots and lots of treasure. _'It comes with the rule of the world'_ Dameon said at one point. Very tempting, very, very tempting. And her finding out about her origins, her real family.

"What real family!" Rhen suddenly shouted, a painful knot forming in her throat. A wave of emotions came past her and she suddenly felt nostalgia for remembering her life back in Clearwater.

"Part of the bargain..." Ahriman muttered, grinning under his hood.

Rhen looked down, holding the tears from streaming down her cheeks, her heart aching. She then looked at the others. Firstly at Lars, who had a tense expression.

"_At your command, my troops will escort your friends outside of the castle and you will follow my son to your room. Remember about the eternity!"_

"Give me one minute." She whispered, spun around and walked directly to Lars, under the thousand of glares. Her entire body was shivery and the look in Lars' green eyes weren't helping at all. Then it happened; she started weeping quietly while exchanging whispers with Lars in less than ten seconds, but it seemed ten decades. The others could hear too, but interaction from them all would have made it worse.

"What do I do?" She stammered.

"_It doesn't matter anymore..."_

"Well?"

She eyed the figure on the throne and inhaled deeply, walking away from her companions in a quiet manner. The little magical bells were ringing softly...

"Do it!"

The troops flew through the holes and gathered around the group, grabbing them by everything they could reach. Lars fought trough the crowd of creatures while shouting Rhen's name, kicking and punching. Until he grabbed an arm that was softer than the others, rationalizing and pulling. He looked in Rhen's deep purple eyes with an ironic grin and gave her a hug in the mass of shuffling claws, hands, chains and feathers.

"You'll miss me." Lars whispered before forcing their lips together for a couple of seconds. "See you soon." He added, letting go of her and being dragged by the claws and hands to the exit.

Lars wakes up from his noon slumber and wastes one more half an hour in his bed. He stands up and leaves his room, ignores his mother that insists on feeding him some mud that she calls chicken soup and exits the house. Slaves are still roaming the roads of Ghalarah. Yuck. Lars still feels like kicking them aside.

There's his dragon. Rampadel.

Lars never understood that weird naming sense of Rhen's. Oh, now he thought about her again. Great.

He changes Rampadel's bandages around his wing and proceeds to the exit of the city, bumping on purpose in some slaves on his way there. The spilled grains make him happy and powerful now. Only now.

Who knows what holds tomorrow? Maybe he will start writing spells. Maybe his dragon won't make it through and he will have to kill him to cease his pain and then collect his scaled, expensive skin. He will write his spells on it. And then pack them in a separate storage area, for dragon scales are more durable than paper.

Or so he thinks.

Of course they will be more durable; there is magic written on them. Magic written with dragon scales. That sounds nice for a title of a spell book. Necromancer Derez will help him out with that.

But he's thought too much; he almost reached Veldarah.

Looking at the sun covered in clouds, he feels nostalgic. Yes, he will write a spell book. Called "Magic written with dragon scales". For money is what concerns him now. And Rhen. That is all.

WILL BE CONTINUED

…...

Just as a side note, I felt like I wrote in Margaret Atwood's style at the end. Just sayin'

Well, then, this is the end of Magic written with dragon scales. It was extreme fun for me to write it. I hope that you enjoyed it. It will be continued in Remember the magic, as many of you know.

I just need to tell you that Remember The Magic will be somewhat violent. I felt like letting you know from now.

Well, then, I have another story to plot now. Good night and thank you for reading.

"Magic written with dragon scales"

brought to you by the headless, wine-loving

_**Wolphie**_

To the next ones!

Cheers~


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